War in Ukraine | From vacationer to refugee, a Bulgarian seaside resort for “second home”

(Kiten) The swimming pool is full of dead leaves, the air is freezing, but in this holiday club with a view of the Black Sea, the children who arrived from Ukraine with their mothers quickly found their bearings thanks to a very committed manager .

Many came in the summer to the small Bulgarian seaside resort of Kiten (east), a popular destination for Ukrainian tourists. So when war broke out on February 24, the choice was obvious.

“It was the only place abroad that we knew was ready to welcome us, accommodate us and help us,” explains Yuliya Moltchanova, a 43-year-old music producer from Kharkiv (north). Like “a second home”.

For her 12-year-old daughter, Nastya, who has been there five times before, these familiar places brought some comfort after five days hiding underground to escape Russian bombing.

“We couldn’t take anything. Now we have everything”, smiles M^me Moltchanova, bundled up in a pink sweater that was given to her. In a poem that she absolutely wants to share, she thanks Bulgarian hospitality, “its peaceful skies, bread and water” offered.

A little piece of Ukraine

Ten years that the owner of the hotel, Kostadin Milev, weaves links with these Ukrainian families. In the courtyard, benches are yellow and blue, on the ground is displayed the slogan “Slava Ukraïni” (“Glory to Ukraine”) drawn in chalk.

With the help of his usual tour operator, he has set up a bus system that goes back and forth daily to pick up children, mothers, grandmothers or aunts in Ukraine.

A total of 400 people have so far been accommodated in this hotel in Kiten, in the tourist region of Bourgas, where many other places also serve as refuge.

On vacation or for seasonal employment, nearly 470,000 Ukrainians visited Bulgaria in 2021, particularly many on the Black Sea coast where they rank among the top nationalities.

“It’s hard and sad” to come back in such conditions, sighs choreographer Oksana Kuchova, who has accompanied children to this hotel on several occasions during bright summer stays, when everything was going well.

Now she finds herself there with her 7-year-old boy and her two-year-old daughter, busy playing with a colorful stroller. At first, she refused to leave her room and cowered at every airplane noise.

” Safe ”

“Our house was bombed and unfortunately we have no place to go after, we are in the unknown,” says Oksana.

But for now, “Thank God, we are safe,” she adds, welcoming “the solidarity” that unites these Ukrainian women in distress.

“That the kids no longer hear the sirens and forget the war is the most important thing,” agrees Galina Yaloza, 65, who fled with her four grandchildren, including two babies.

In addition to their own offspring, others have taken children of relatives under their wing.

While the older ones attend online lessons, darlings let off steam in an improvised playroom, others listen wisely to stories read aloud.

The hotel, which is usually closed in winter, is currently financing this off-season reception with its own money and thanks to donations of food and clothing, but its young manager is counting on future state aid to be able to s ‘get out.

Because he is preparing to house a thousand refugees in the various buildings of his complex, and the arrival of the electricity bill risks being “brutal”, worries Mr. Milev.

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive, more than 94,500 Ukrainian citizens have entered Bulgaria via neighboring Romania, of which 50,000 are still there.

However, the government was slow to set up reception centers and most of them had to turn to private initiatives.

On one of the hotel desks, the paperwork is piled up – with no hope of returning to their country quickly, the current residents all want to apply for asylum so that they can work and send their children to school, as soon as possible. possible.