“I’m already having bad shivers.” These three Ukrainian women in Groningen talk about the tensions in their homeland

A car trip from Groningen to the Ukrainian oblasts Donetsk or Lugansk takes about 31 hours. The two oblasts, similar to regions or provinces, are about 2,600 kilometers away, yet the conflict going on there isn’t a far-fetched show. For Oksana Lozynska, Yuliya Hilevych, and Yara Marusyk, all three of whom have lived in Groningen for years, it comes very close. They are of Ukrainian descent and tell us for the second time what the situation in their native country means for them and other Ukrainians. We spoke to them before when Russian troops gathered at the Ukrainian border, and we do so again now that the troops have moved into Donetsk and Lugansk.