Ukraine war: ‘My husband went to buy flour... and a bomb landed metres away’

A Ukrainian grandmother who has come to visit her family in Cambridge to “hold them tight” has spoken of the ordeal she and her husband have faced in Ukraine during the war.

And she has vowed to return to her home country within weeks, even though when they are at home they have to hide in their garage while missiles fly overhead because “Putin cannot tell us where to live”.

Valentina, 63, has come to the UK with her husband Vasyl, 68, to visit their son Vitalii, his wife Nataliia and their four children, who live in Cambridge.

She met with the Cambridge Independent, with Nataliia as translator, to explain what has been happening to her family.

The last time we reported on Valentina, who lives in Chernihiv, it was in the first week of the war and her daughter in law was trying to contact her while she hid in a makeshift bunker under her garage at home.

Valentina says: “At the beginning of the war it was a really ‘hot’ intense period when our city was being fired upon from Belarus, from abroad. The Ukrainian military were protecting the centre of the city, although some large buildings were hit including the library and the cinema and a big hotel, and so we were hiding in our garage.

“We live in a street of small, private houses and not everyone has left that part of the city because it is a bit more secure. It is safer than in the tower blocks. But even so, when the Russians were attacking from Belarus we could hear the missiles flying overhead and would listen for them landing. It was so scary.

“Once, my husband Vasyl went out to the shop to buy flour and while he was in there a bomb landed less than 30 metres away from the shop. Everyone dropped to the floor when it happened. He came home and told me about it and said after that experience it was like he’d been through a second birth because he was glad to be alive.

“We felt a deep fear, all the time, because you’re not sure where this bomb will land but you can hear it's really, really close.

“Also at nightime, we had to sleep with our jackets on because it was so cold and there was no electricity supply, no heat, no light and hardly any water, although we were luckier than our neighbours because we had a fireplace that Vasilii had built for us five years ago. We were surrounded by a blockade for one month, one week and one day.

“Coming to Cambridge is like a different world. A totally different reality.”

Nataliia says: “They just want to feel the closeness of family and the unity of our family and kids. They’re doing an amazing job taking kids to school every morning and picking them up while they are here.”

She is keen for her parents-in-law to stay and is also trying to get a visa for her own parents, which she applied for in early April and still has not received. They have moved to Lviv now from Kyiv, where her mother was working as a pharmacist. Her father is now helping the humanitarian effort there. However, even if they come she knows they too will return to Ukraine.

She says: “This is about our nation's resilience. I think this is something really in our genes that has built up over centuries.”

Valentina explains that she wants to return to Ukraine, because “it’s our home - it’s our territory”.

“So we just want to protect our lives, our houses, our children. We are a sovereign and independent country but other people decided that they want to make their decisions for us, and they haven't asked us and it's just unacceptable. I think our homeland gives us that energy we need as well.

“We don’t want them (the Russians) in our territory at all. We just want to live our usual life and we don’t want them to come into our cities and steal in our houses, raping our girls and children.

“Everyone is helping - the military and volunteers are protecting us. Volunteers are helping people with the food and with water, and we are sharing with each other. We had a fridge with some food in and some preserved berries and courgettes which we shared. People are really supportive of each other.

“It’s impossible to leave Ukraine because all our life we have been building our house and even this spring we managed to plant beetroot and potatoes and courgettes. And we have a cat so we have to go home to look after it.”

The food they grow and pickle or preserve has been a lifeline for them and their neighbours during the war when food has been scarce.

Nataliia explains: “At the end of the summer they preserve the fruit and vegetables in their garden. In the UK it's more like a hobby, but for people and small cities or villages it is a much bigger operation. For them, this is the source of life because you can eat it during the winter time. So they had this food in their basement at the start of the war and this is how they were able to eat.”

When the electricity was off, the mayor of Chernihiv made sure people had access to a generator for short periods so they could charge their phones. Now volunteers are working on ways to protect homes and people if the attacks increase.

Nataliia says: “Lots of people who are in Chernihiv are panicking because we are expecting to have more attacks from Belarus. So our militaries and our civilians are digging trenches in order to be prepared. So it's a quiet time now but we're still really worried.”

In the UK, Nataliia and her husband have been raising money to buy ambulances in auctions, which vitalii then drives across to Ukraine to help with casualties in the war. As we spoke he was about to buy another and drive it over to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Nataliia has been setting up a weekend school for Ukrainian refugees so they can meet up with people from their country and play together.

She says: “We want to provide them this space where they can play, they can speak Ukrainian, they can hear Ukrainian so they can enjoy their childhood. And so I really want the school be a happy place for them and make a space where parents can get to know each other. So we're discussing this with our initiative group.

“We have been moved by the kindness of all the people who want to help Ukraine. It shows an unbelievable unity of humanity. We have known people selling furniture to raise money, or baking cakes, or children selling lemonade. The kids at school have been wearing yellow and blue.

“Parents have learnt a Ukrainian greeting and are saying it at the school gates to us. And our neighbours are raising money at a street party for Ukraine. Everyone is so kind. We are grateful, too, for the help the government has given our country.”

Donate to the ambulance project at https://bit.ly/3N8Xfcf.