Viktoriia, Ukrainian, spends her third Christmas away from her family

Viktoriia Kirukhina left Ukraine in May 2022, a few months after the war between Ukraine and Russia, leaving her life, her friends and part of her family behind. This year is the third Christmas she has spent without her grandmother and cousins.

On this December 25, Viktoriia Kirukhina, twenty-four years old, testifies to her “sadness“for his grandmother who wanted to stay in Kryvyï Rih, her hometown, in the south of Ukraine.”She has her own house, and she has always lived there. But there are explosions and she no longer has electricity. She's scared, and so am I.“, worries the young woman.

“In Vannes, I am safe, my family and my parents too”she admits, thinking of her grandmother and her cousins, who remained in the country. This is the third Christmas she has spent without her grandmother. “I talk to him every day on the phone.“

In Vannes, I am safe, my family and my parents too

Viktoria Kirukhina

Ukrainian refugee in Brittany

This year, she continues to celebrate Christmas following the Ukrainian custom: “we prepare twelve different dishes, it’s tradition. Each family has its own recipes. (…) Here, in France, there is not at all the same food”she smiled.

Viktoriia was only twenty-two years old and living in kyiv during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. From the first hours, she describes constant worry, then difficulty obtaining food. “Together, with my friends, we were close and optimistic. We stuck together.“

Then came the explosions, she who then lived near Boutcha in the suburbs of kyiv, where many Ukrainian civilians were massacred. “We took refuge in the metro for almost a week“, she recalls, in very good French.

Fleeing the bombings, she and her companion Anton then left the capital to reach Kryvyï Rih, the town where she was from, located a stone's throw from Dnipro.

If the supermarkets were open there, however, she says she also felt the war there, the city being “about a hundred kilometers from Kherson, then occupied by the Russians“. Before adding: “I heard the sirens, and at night, I saw the flashes of explosions. I was really scared.“

Unfortunately, the war was not over, so we left for France to join a friend

Viktoria Kirukhina

Ukrainian refugee in Brittany

With her mother, Viktoriia eventually left Ukraine to join her sister in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before returning to Paris in May 2022.Unfortunately, the war was not over, so we left for France to join a friend.“

Also read : After two years of war, what future for the 4,000 Ukrainians displaced in Brittany?

They stayed with him for a few days before going to Brittany, to settle in Vannes, in Morbihan. It evokes a change of life “difficile“for his mother, who had”his apartment and a job” a Ukraine.

“Not speaking French well, it's difficult for her to find a job“. Today, Viktoriia lives with her two parents, as well as her partner who joined her last year.

Viktoriia hopes for a quick end to the war, “an end to suffering“. “Too many people are losing their homes or losing their lives.”lists the young woman.

“It’s too hard there, I hope it will stop”concludes Viktoriia who wants to return to Ukraine to reunite with her family and friends. A hope imbued with a certain apprehension: “The Russians will still be able to attack, like in 2022.“