Since the war in Ukraine, marriage agencies beset with requests

To the great surprise of Katery Baratova, the boss of the agency In the heart of the East, the phone has never rung so much as since the start of the war in Ukraine. She receives dozens of calls a day. “It’s not possible to use my phoneshe assures. I can’t take pictures or do anything else because it keeps ringing.”

The company, created in 2011, makes it possible to meet women from the East. In order to find love in six months, you have to pay 1,900 euros. Currently, nine out of ten people she receives on the phone are men who present themselves as great lords, ready to save a young Ukrainian from the hell of war. “My name is Gérard, I’m 60 years old, I agree to host the Tatiana of your site, it’s free, I want to help her”, reports Katery Baratova. “I think these men are trying to position themselves as heroes. They hide their self-interest behind a pretense of humanitarianism,” explains the boss of the Au Coeur de l’Est agency.

Kataryna Baratova is originally from Kharkiv and works mainly with women from this city, around 300 Ukrainian “members”. His clients: men from several French-speaking countries (Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec).

The manager makes sure to protect her most vulnerable members. On the other hand, some are determined and want to meet a man to flee the country, “knowing once again that they have choices, and right now they have more choices than ever.”

“Other members are present in western Ukraine, often in the countryside, and are ready to discuss with our customers and come and meet them in Europe because they would like to leave.”

Kataryna Baratova, manager of the marriage agency

at franceinfo

Alexandre is one of the suitors. This 43-year-old lawyer registered before the war. He has met three women in recent weeks and says he did not feel this need for protection. “In any case, I have not met people in distress who felt the extreme need to be sheltered by a manhe explains. The three were in rather comfortable situations. It would have bothered me a little to be in this position of a woman in distress, ready to do anything to flee the war and take refuge with the first man who came along. At the end of these three dates, Alexander kept Svetlana’s number. A second meeting is already scheduled.