The first humanitarian flight with Ukrainian citizens arrived in the country. From different cities, they had to travel to Poland, where some waited months for the plane that brought them to Argentina. An odyssey to save their lives.
On February 24 the life of Irina Vetvinska change. At 76 years old, she had to start a long road that would take her, without knowing it, to Argentina. Gone are the days in her house Kharkivwhere he began to hear constant shelling. Alina Sinova he also lived in the city with his family. In March, after a month of conflict, he decided to seek refuge in Poland.
The story of Bohdan Holovchak it is different. At the beginning of the war he presented himself in the army to enlist, but a condition in one of his legs did not allow him. Unable to help from within, he decided to leave Ivano-Frankivsk to take the flight to Argentina. Her mother is still there, so she hopes to help her soon.
live in war
“From the beginning in Kharkiv there was not a single day of ceasefireIn addition, we lost connection at times,” says Lilia Yelankina, Irina’s granddaughter. The day she lost contact, Irina decided to go up the twelve floors of her building until she had a signal on her phone. From above she could see the destruction that had been caused by the bombardments that she heard. She “she called us in a panic attack, she didn’t want to be alone in the house. We told her to go take refuge in the subway, so she could see people, ”explains her granddaughter.
The Irina’s apartment was left alone and left the keys to the only neighbor who stayed in the building.
“He left the keys just in case”, recounts his family. Until the last moment they kept the hope that the conflict would end, in the local media they heard that it would be five days or only a week.
During the nights of March the temperature dropped, reaching 15 degrees below zero. The week that Irina lived on the platforms had her consequences: fever and ailments. In this state, traveled from Kharkov to Poltava and from there to Kremenchuk, where she spent three weeks recovering in a house that housed her. “Missile alarms were constantly going off in the area from passing planes, but after hearing the heavy shelling from Kharkov they were commonplace,” she said.
Irina left Kremenchuk to go to Lviv, from where it went to Poland. Already in the neighboring country, she slept a week in a shelter waiting for them to look for her to register for the flight. In the refugee camps, Alina was also with her children. She had arrived in Warsaw in March and had been waiting for two months.
Argentina
The plane arrived with nine passengers in the country, most of them had landed in Spain. The flight, organized by the Solidarity NGOin charge of Enrique Pineyrowas the first humanitarian mission to arrive. Irina and Alina, Together with their children, they were reunited with their relatives in tears.
“The first thing I felt when I saw them was compassion. Imagine what they have experienced, losing their home, their friends, their culture. I felt that everything is little, much more needs to be done”, said Alexia Keglevich, who used the services of her company to transport the newcomers to their new homes.
“From Pax Assistance we made a form to sign up and help in different ways: with accommodation, donations, inviting meals or teaching the language. There is a lot to do,” says Keglevich. In addition, various Ukrainian communities in the country offer help to families.
“From the State there is no systematization in terms of aid,” clarifies Irina’s granddaughter about the situation of arriving in the country. “More refugees cannot be brought in if we do not have a place to house them and with the guarantee that they have the minimum of basic needs covered,” remarks Keglevich.
The Ukrainian Association of Inns was in charge of receiving Bohdan in his new home. “For us it is a great responsibility because he is a person who comes from a very difficult scenario,” explains Jorge Balanda, president of the Central Representation of Ukrainians in Argentina, Misiones delegation. Bohdan, who speaks English and Italian in addition to Ukrainian, takes Spanish classes to quickly adapt to the country.
“You have to explain how the country moves. It is a difficult task and we are all non-profit organizations, where solidarity prevails”, explains Balanda, who meets with Bohdan daily to tell him about Argentina. Bohdan, who has already begun to take customs such as mate, expressed his enthusiasm for the country and the desire to start working to be able to become independent and help his family in Ukraine.
