Like every Saturday now in Limoges, the Ukrainian community and French people in solidarity demonstrated this Saturday in the city center. After having sung the anthem of Ukraine on the place of Aine, a hundred people strolled through the streets of the old center to cries of “Putin assassin”, “close our skies” or even “peace in Ukraine, peace in Europe”. In the procession, Ukrainians who have been living in Limousin for a long time and others who have just arrived after fleeing the country.
Alla has just arrived from central Ukraine with her 9-year-old daughter
In particular, Alla arrived with her 9-year-old daughter and five other family members (including 2 children aged 5 and 14) a week ago with her sister who lives in Cussac near Limoges. In Ukraine, this 36-year-old woman works in a kindergarten in a village located halfway between kyiv and Odessa near the city of Vinnytsia. A school that no longer has the same vocation. “In my school, there are no more children. What people who live there. Everything is prepared for people arriving from Donetsk, kyiv, Kharkov and all the areas already bombed.”
They monitor our city where many people arrive with children
Even there, the Russian army begins to drop its bombs while many Ukrainians have taken refuge in this central region and away from major cities. “Our city was also bombed. We no longer have an airport. It is broken. The TV and the radio don’t work because the antenna is broken too. The men stayed because now it’s forbidden for them to go out. They monitor our city where many people arrive with children” she explains in rather well-spoken French.
A week across Europe to reach Limousin
Alla and her family took a week to reach France and Limousin via Moldova and then Bucharest in Romania. It’s there that her sister’s French husband came to pick them up in a mini bus. Not without difficulty for those who did not have a biometric passport and who had to fight with the embassies to obtain a pass. Alla who during Saturday’s demonstration in Limoges held a sign to reassure a little the men who had to stay in the country with this inscription: “hold on, we take care of your wives and children“.
– Jerome Ostermann
A volunteer since the beginning of the war, she took care of many refugees in her village but “now it’s very difficult because in the pharmacies, there is almost nothing left in medicine” she warns, especially for people suffering from blood problems and diabetes. Not to mention the food that is so sorely lacking after several weeks of war. Especially in big cities where the situation will quickly become very complicated warns his sister Tetyana.
I know they have a lot of will but it scares us because they are not ready for it
A woman particularly concerned for her family who is still there. “I still have my brother, my brother-in-law, a lot of family there. We are afraid for them. Even men who have not done military service are now being called up to fight. I know they have a lot of will but it scares us because they are not ready for it. And we know it’s gonna go on“. Tetyana also fears that he is increasingly difficult for convoys of donations to reach the center of the country while rumors have come back to her that the borders may be closed from April.
– Jerome Ostermann