The Press in the Czech Republic | Rebuild your life or wait for the big return

The Czech Republic has taken in some 205,000 refugees since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the vast majority of them women and children. While some want to settle, others are just waiting for the opportunity to return to Ukraine.

(Prague) Sofia Cheïko vividly remembers the fighting that took place in the street next to their apartment in northern Kharkiv, in one of the first neighborhoods targeted by Russian bombs. “The tanks started firing, the children were crying, the adults were praying, it was terrible. »

When the Russian fighter planes began to fly over their building, the 18-year-old young woman, her mother, her grandmother and her little brother decided to flee. Two days later, a shell destroyed their apartment.

According to Svitlana, 51, and Vitali, her 16-year-old son, the situation was calmer in their Kyiv neighborhood, but they left anyway, fearing that the city would be surrounded by Russian forces. Svitlana’s husband remained to defend the city. Tears well up in her eyes when she recounts her departure.

Ukrainians who found their way to Prague tell of a harrowing journey. Crowded stations, trains filled to bursting, roads blocked by kilometers of traffic jams, endless queues at border posts. And fear, constant fear of bombs.

Through mutual acquaintances, Sofia, Svitlana and Rita Naminat found themselves in Lviv, western Ukraine, where Rita’s sister was chartering a bus to Prague. But for them, the destination was not the most important thing. “We fled Kharkiv in such terror that I didn’t think where to go, the important thing was to get away from the bombs,” says Sofia.

In the Czech Republic for ten days, these three women are touched by the welcome they received. Rita talks about a Czech policeman handing $50 to her elderly mother on the station steps, while Svitlana is moved by all the Ukrainian flags in the streets. The Czech government has planned to invest the equivalent of 169 million Canadian dollars to help refugees in its country. “We feel the support and it’s nice to see that people understand us,” says Svitlana. She thinks the Czechs know they could be Vladimir Putin’s next victims.

Follow your dreams

Despite forced exile and the destruction of her apartment, Sofia remains positive and pursues her dream of becoming a professional ballerina. Thanks to donations received on her arrival, she was able to buy ballet slippers, hers having remained behind in the chaos of the flight. The National Theater in Prague welcomes him to rehearse with his troupe.

Already before the war, the young woman intended to leave to try her luck in the theaters of Central Europe, and the fighting only accelerated her departure. “If I was offered a job in the theater here in Prague, I would definitely stay there,” she says.

For Rita, who was a saleswoman in Kharkiv, job opportunities are rare in Prague, since she speaks neither Czech nor English, but she wants to be busy.

Despite the distance, she cannot stop following the news from Ukraine and suffering at the sight of events. “I constantly want to cry when I see these ruins in the streets of my city, she says, but I feel even more pain for these people who are dying, for Mariupol, it’s atrocious what is happening. going there. »

If they cannot predict the end of the war, these women keep hope in the Ukrainian army. “Ukraine must win, because so many people died, so many soldiers sacrificed themselves for all of us,” Svitlana said.

Rita continues to believe that Kharkiv will resist: “I miss my home and I want to go back […]but what is clear is that I am not going to come back to live under Russian occupation,” she says.