“My store should be a safe place for everyone.” The Russian Olga Chamova makes the most of it in her grocery store on Nieuweweg in Groningen. She has been through a lot since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Cyrillic letters adorn the packaging of the foodstuffs on the shelves of the Vjatka, as the store is called. “Not everything comes from Russia, you can find delicacies from all over Eastern Europe here,” emphasizes owner Olga Chamova. Her customers do not only come from Russia, but also from Romania, Estonia and Ukraine, for example. “Some people don’t come anymore. I can understand that very well given the situation.”
She has had annoying e-mails and also phone calls from people expressing their anger about the invasion of Russia. She herself prefers not to talk about it anymore: “I want to help people, that’s the least I can do. There is no discussion here about the war. I don’t want that. This should be a safe place for everyone.”
At the door are boxes in which people can donate long-life food for refugees from Ukraine. A number of boxes have already been sent to the Polish-Ukrainian border where the food items are distributed.