We Are Extremely Grateful to the Scottish People for their Big Hearts
Ukranian's Olena and Natalia now live in Ayrshire and regularly visit the tunnel. Here they tell us about their new lives in Ayrshire.
The lives of all Ukrainians changed forever on 24 February 2022, when Russian forces invaded their country. Olena Boriskova and Natalia Hrevtseva are among the seven million Ukrainians who fled from Ukraine, leaving family, friends and everything they had known to face a very uncertain future.
Along with approximately 28,000 others, Olena and Natalia found refuge in Scotland. I was privileged to meet them both and to hear from them at first hand.
Natalia’s hometown is Kharkiv. She was on business in Kyiv when the war with Russia broke out. Her two daughters, then aged 18 and 24, were still in Kharkiv and she spent two very anxious days trying to contact them. “I thought I would never see my daughters again”. Eventually they met up in Lviv and escaped to Prague. After a month, it was obvious that a return to Kharkiv was not possible. They sought asylum and were eventually brought to Scotland. Natalia is grateful that her daughters are with her, but she had to leave her partner and father behind. They initially lived in the Mercure Hotel for eight months after arriving in autumn 2022.
Olena lived in Kherson, which was attacked almost immediately after the war started. Olena spent six months under occupation before “packing what I could of my life in a suitcase and getting out”. She had to leave her parents, who did not want to be evacuated, and her husband, who is serving in the Ukrainian Army. She was initially assigned to a host family in Alloway when she arrived in summer 2022.
“Scotland has given us the best support we could ask for, we are so grateful to the Scottish people for their big hearts”, (Olena).
Initially, their expectation was that they would soon be able to go back to Ukraine but now, three years on, there is no end to the conflict in sight and no prospect of a return to their homeland.
They are both grateful that the UK opened its doors to Ukrainian refugees. They were able to enter the UK without visas, were supported to learn English, provided with accommodation and given the help that they badly needed.
The physical support of food, clothes, dishes etc, the medical support of GP services, and the emotional and psychological support we needed. At first we could not talk about our experiences, however as time has gone on, we feel able to open up and discuss our history and process the experiences we have gone through” (Natalia).
On arrival in Scotland, Olena and Natalia each had a smattering of English, learned at school. Their knowledge was limited to a few simple phrases, a small vocabulary and little conversational English. Neither had much prior knowledge of Scotland. Natalia had gone to school in the Soviet Union, so knew about Robert Burns and his poetry and had engaged in Burns Night celebrations, complete with “a man in a kilt and a big knife stabbing the haggis!” She never dreamt that one day she would be living near his birthplace.
Olena admitted that her prior knowledge about Scotland had largely come from watching Mel Gibson in Braveheart!
They both love living in Scotland. Scottish weather continues to intrigue them! They find it amazing that the weather can change so quickly, from sunshine to rain and back to sunshine all in the space of a few hours. They enjoy Scottish nature, and love how green Scotland is all year round.
For all Ukrainian refugees, their lives are dominated by uncertainty. Many are living from one day to the next, unsure if a return to Ukraine will ever be possible. Meanwhile they are integrating as best they can.
At this stage, neither Olena nor Natalia feels able to make future plans, but both are happy, optimistic and making the best of their situation.
Olena says “I have no plans other than to be happy right here, right now. I have no idea what is next. Life is so fragile. The situation is so scary”.
Natalia is, perhaps, more reflective “I would like to return to Ukraine and I find myself overthinking things. I find it stressful that I cannot make decisions about my future, though I do try to live one day at a time and enjoy the day”.
Both Natalia and Olena have joined Breeze, the British Cycling initiative to encourage women into cycling. They enjoy regular cycles, some of which go through the Alloway Railway Tunnel.
Olena remembers the Tunnel when it was “horrible” and is so pleased to see its transformation. She took part in one of the Cutty Sark Workshops and is always delighted to see “my fairy” displayed in the Mural! The Tunnel is getting “nicer and nicer” each time I go through it.
As Olena said: “You have to build yourself again. It’s not like deciding to emigrate where you make a choice to move to a new country. We just had to run, we had no choice. Life had to start from scratch again”.
Both Olena and Natalia have risen to the challenges of relocation. Their positivity and optimism shines through. I leave the final comment to Natalia:
“Everything we had known previously was cancelled. In Ukraine we had had a good education, professional jobs, cars, houses, family and friends, a familiar language and so on. When we arrived here, we literally had nothing. But we are alive. I am so happy not to wake up to the sound of bombing, I now wake up to the sound of seagulls!”
Olena Boriskova
Natalia Hrevtseva
