thirty years after having welcomed Youla Rozhno, child of Chernobyl, these French people open their house to him again

Youla Rozhno recognized the house from the county road. It is her, the ocher facade, the two levels, the pebbles at the entrance, always on the right after the bend, and always close to the church of the village of Island, in the Yonne. Thirty years, nine months and two weeks after this first time, the Ukrainian is back with Paule and Marc Buffy, the couple who had already opened their doors wide to her, a few years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

This time, it was Vladimir Putin and his war that forced Youla, 41 years old today, to find refuge in the town of 180 inhabitants, located 50 km from Auxerre. “You know I missed you, softened this woman with round cheeks and blond hair that fell to her shoulders. You are like my family, like my second parents, you have already given me a lot during my childhood. And here, at home, is the house of happiness, a house where I feel good.”

Same place, same hosts, same emotion. When she saw these two familiar faces again, at the end of the day, Sunday March 13, Youla was not the only one to burst into tears. Seated in the kitchen, Marc replays the reunion scene: “With Paule, we watched the vehicles arriving. A car, that’s her! No, it’s a truck. And there it is! Oh no, it’s a van. When we saw it was you, we all hugged and kissed.”

Paule and Marc Buffy, 69 and 71 years old today, offered Youla to return to Burgundy as soon as the first bombs started raining on his city of kyiv. “On the morning of February 24, I got up early and heard that it had farted”, says Marc, still upset. At 6:30 a.m., he sends a first SMS to Youla: “If you want it, if you can, if it’s possible, we can welcome you to Island.” Then a second: “We’ll pick you up in Ukraine, wherever you are.” The former craftsman-cabinetmaker explodes: “I was boiling inside. I was there, safe, and I saw what was going on there. With Paule, we even inquired about renting a minibus and hitting the road.”

The first time Youla set foot on Island, she was only 11 years old and her height of five-two did not allow her to reach for the cakes in the cupboard upstairs without the help of a chair. We are in July 1991, François Mitterrand is still at the Elysée Palace, the USSR is still the USSR for a few months, and the town of Pripyat, where Youla is from, a few kilometers from Chernobyl, has suffered five years earlier the biggest nuclear accident in history. In Burgundy, as elsewhere in France, families are mobilizing, associations are emerging. Paule summarizes the initial idea: “Why not offer Ukrainian children to come and relax with us? They could experience something else.” “That was exactly it, Yula nods. I lived a breath away from my country to forget the disaster. I had a notebook and I wrote down all the French words I learned. I remember ‘potato’.”

Initially, the Soviet teenager must stay for three weeks. Finally, she will not return home, in Ukraine, until two months later. Time to discover cheese and green beans, cycling bowls and the Alps. Time, too, to consult the village doctor, “for examinations, just in case, with radioactivity”, posing in the files as Maud, one of the Buffy children. Youla is like family: you spot her, big smile in the photo frame of the living room, magnetized next to cousins, brothers and sisters, and nephews and nieces.

In thirty-one years, a lot has changed on both sides. The road where Youla used to play barefoot tennis has been resurfaced. The old presbytery, where she used to go for walks, has been renovated. And then the internet came along, and WhatsApp replaced the handwritten letters families used to send each other for birthdays and Christmas.

Marc still wears the mustache, but he is now retired. Paule left the Enational education, but she has found other functions: since 2005, she has become “Madam Mayor”. Thursday, March 31, a grant of 1,000 euros was also voted by the city council to give a financial boost to the local association kyiv-Avallon.

Youla’s bedroom at the end of the stairs, in which she slept from July 2, 1991, has since been plastered, painted and repainted. Today, it is Aleksandra, 5 and a half years old, who is dragging her socks on the floor. Because Youla became a mother of three children. This time she arrived with a little more than her small suitcase where she stored her clothes. at the time. The trunk of her Chevrolet Captiva, in which Youla and her children traveled from Ukraine, is overflowing with stuff. Luggage, shopping bags, clothes for everyone, stuffed animals and cuddly toys for Aleksandra, games and computer equipment for Timofil, 14 years old… And there is cats, Voice and Yasia, their kibble, and their litter.

In a photo from the summer of 1991, Youla appears happy calling “mom” with a handset that can only be found in flea markets. Today, it is to her husband, Leonid, and to their eldest son, Sviatloslav, who has come of age for just three months, that she makes phone calls. They stayed in Ukraine because they could be mobilized for the army, like all men aged 18 to 60. 2:10 p.m., the phone vibrates: “Ah, it’s them, sorry, I have to answer. It’s been thirty-three days of war today…” she counts, Tuesday, March 29, before isolating herself in the next room.

After two weeks of living together, Youla slowly begins to cook. It has also undertaken to translate into Ukrainian all the explanations of the castle of Bazoches, in the Nièvre. “But I have trouble concentrating, I’m tired, I have to take care of my children, there’s a lot of stress and anxiety, we don’t sleep very well. It’s a bit empty insideshe whispers, patting her head. I’m happy to be here, at Paule and Marc’s, but it’s complicated. My body is there, but my mind is still in Ukraine. It’s not a holiday like before.”

“We constantly go from laughter to tears. There are times when we let go completely, when we laugh hard. But it’s not the same despite everything. The war comes back quickly in our discussions. She has her husband and her son eldest there… It’s different.

Marc and Paule Buffy

at franceinfo

Meanwhile, in the living room, the youngest, Aleksandra, is having fun with her matryoshka, a Russian doll, when the toy falls and breaks on the floor. “There, all is said !” laugh the adults.

Suddenly, Youla notice a “thing” : “You have seen, it is always after spring events that I take refuge with you… Chernobyl, spring 86. The war, spring 2022. I feel like history is repeating itself.” Marc and Paule, in unison, give it a try: “The Chances of Life.” Youla has another explanation: “The bad luck of life, rather.” To lighten the mood, all three talk about the time when Youla came to Burgundy to surprise Marc on the occasion of his birthday. “I recognize that you had me well, there!” Everyone is teasing. Ironically, before the war, they had planned to all meet again this summer, on Island, and enjoy the garden. Eventually, Youla may still be here.