The reality of war and refuge are experiences that many of us will never have to face. The least we can do is pay attention to those who have lived through them.
We are honoured to share the testimony of Sonya, a Ukrainian student now living in Oxfordshire.
My name is Sonya. I am from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
When the war started, I just turned 16, so it was almost in the middle of my 5th form.
Imagine, one casual Thursday early in the morning one of your parents wakes you up saying: ‘Wake up, the war just began’.
It is 6 am. You wake up shaking. You receive a message from your friend about the start of the war. Everything seems surreal. You think: ‘They are aiming at me right now’. Why would you think that they would choose your house out of the whole country? Because you don’t know what the missiles are, you just turned 16.
You have an hour to pack your things and to leave your house. You won’t return there, in my case, for almost half a year. This is the moment your life changes to ‘before’ and ‘after’.
And now you are in the car. You don’t understand what is going on. You still think that you were supposed to have a test at school that day.
We went to the countryside with my whole family. We thought it would be safer there than in the capital. For 9 days we lived in our neighbour’s basement. You still don’t understand what is going on. You just can’t comprehend it.
There were a couple of shootings that made the doors shake, and we saw the smog from our window. The explosions were getting closer. My dad told me that it might be our last moments.
Only in April, when I was already in Poland and the suburbs of Kyiv were unoccupied, I realized how lucky we were. Russian troops were just 1.5 kilometers away from our home. How lucky we were to survive.
My decision to come to the UK was spontaneous, no one planned to send me to school here. A month before my 6th form would start, I was choosing the schools to apply to by their websites – I had never been to the UK at that point.
In August I visited the UK for the first time. In September, however, I was still coming to uncertainty – now all alone in a foreign country, having no relatives here. It was petrifying.
For you, this change is too sudden, and you still can’t comprehend what is happening. But at least the Russians don’t threaten your life here.
I am immensely grateful to the UK for supporting Ukraine. I am immensely grateful to every single one of you who supports Ukraine. I am immensely grateful to the School for being so open to Ukrainians and for doing everything they are. I am immensely grateful to be so lucky to have survived and to have a future.
As the war goes on, all the Ukrainians keep on experiencing similar emotions: from the feeling of guilt for not being able to help Ukraine more, to the feeling of constant sadness, as it does affect our mental state significantly. Even if we don’t show it.
I have shared my story of war with barely anyone. But I am so grateful for the opportunity to do this. Thank you for reading.
