Published on 02/25/2024 at 8:30 a.m. Written by Léa Fournier
Arriving in France at the start of the war in Ukraine, Olga lives in Lille with her daughter Marta. She had first imagined returning to her country as quickly as possible, to join her husband. Two years later, she finds herself, without having planned it, starting a new life.
On the dining table, a small bouquet of purple tulips in a vase. On the living room windows, blue curtains, matching the cushions and the armchair. “I never imagined having my own nest in France”, Olga, 50, is always surprised. She has been a refugee in France since April 2022, with her 19-year-old daughter, Marta. Two years after the start of the war in Ukraine, Olga gradually came to terms with the idea that she had to live “in the present moment”.
Life goes on and I don’t want to waste these years.
Olga
Ukrainian refugee
She and Marta arrived with two small suitcases. “I had nothing”, she says. His life, his apartment, his objects, everything was in Kharkiv, the westernmost large city of Ukraine. “Before I bought things that I imagined I could bring back to Ukraine”, she says. One thing led to another and she bought a few decorative items, furniture… Paint to repaint the tiles in the kitchen of her apartment in Lille.
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Olga touches her bobbed blonde hair and dangling earrings. The date February 24 makes her nervous. The start of the war, in 2022. Then, a month later, the start of his exile in France. “We came for a month… Then it was six months… Then a year. And now it’s been going on for two years. I had been hoping all this time to return to Ukraine as soon as possible”, she says.
She wiggles her fingers, carefully varnished a pinkish taupe color. She has adopted new habits in Lille: she has her hairdresser, her beautician and her doctor. “Life goes on and I don’t want to waste these years.”
We came for a month… Then it was six months… Then a year. And now it’s been going on for two years. I had been hoping all this time to return to Ukraine as quickly as possible.
Olga
Ukrainian refugee
She always has the idea of returning to Ukraine in mind. “I’m thinking of going back there. But we’ll see… For the moment, we don’t know anything. Because every day there are changes, we cannot predict”, she explains.
Her husband still lives in a Ukrainian village, monitored every night by drones, with their dog and cat. The borders are closed, he cannot reach her. They have not seen each other since Olga and Marta left the country, except by video, thanks to social networks. “We had plans and then one day we were shown that everything can be changed like ‘that’”, she said, snapping her fingers.
As things stand, she remains in her new “not“, In France. “I can’t imagine how we can live in Ukraine, even sleep… Knowing that it can happen again”, depicts the woman. She rebuilt her routine in Lille. Today, her daughter’s lover comes to help prepare the evening meal. For dinner, she receives friends, as she did in her apartment in Kharkiv.
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Associations, friends, colleagues… From the start, Olga has been supported. “I have a lot of support, I am always surrounded”. When she arrived, she was already in contact with a French family that she had known for around thirty years – she met them as a child during a Franco-Ukrainian exchange organized by her school specializing in French.
The “Ukraine in Gold” association, for which she is also a volunteer, provided her with accommodation. She found a permanent job in a DIY store. Customers and colleagues received her with great kindness. “They ask me out, they tell me they love me and that I can talk to them”, smiles Olga, her blue eyes visibly moved. “Especially lately. They see that it’s difficult for me”.
After two years of war, she fears that the situation in her country will get worse. “Russia is much better organized militarily, we have a very serious enemy, so it could be even harder…”
I’m afraid to go back, I’m afraid to see all that.
Olga
Ukrainian refugee
On her phone, Olga scrolls through images of her pets, videos of her apartment in Kharkiv, of her neighborhood that she loves, half destroyed… “I’m afraid to go back, I’m afraid to see all that”, she breathes, moved, tucking her head into her shoulders.
She also shows photos of her new life: a birthday meal with members of the association, a selfie with a colleague, a photo of Marta with her boyfriend.
Her photo gallery reflects the story she tells of her history, of her doubts about the future. On the one hand, the attachment to his native land, the nostalgia and the hope of returning there – and of a free Ukraine. On the other, forced mourning, the headlong rush towards the future in France.
2024-02-25 07:53:01
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