“On our way to the railway station we didn’t know where we were going or how we would do it. We decided to leave because it was both dangerous and emotionally difficult to stay in Kyiv. The constant feeling of anxiety drove us crazy. Those days Putin threatened the world with nuclear weapons. That became the last straw and we left out of fear. With every step we felt as if we were abandoning our home. On some days I can cry for a few hours. We feel lost and out of place,” says Maria Margulis, 29. She has lived her whole life in Kyiv and worked as an SMM manager and graphic designer. Together with her mother and dog, she evacuated first to Lviv and then to Toulouse where her best friend lives.
“To tell you the truth, it’s very hard emotionally. On the one hand, we were lucky because we had a place to go and we met some volunteers who helped us get there. We have no reasons to complain, but the decision was extremely hard to make. I love my city and I liked my job. I dreamed of finishing my apartment renovation by summer. I loved the park where I walked my dog.”
Maria says that at some point she couldn’t bear the constant fear and threat of shelling any more. “I couldn’t read because I was afraid of missing the siren. I was afraid to fall asleep. I walked my dog Vova next to the porch and wouldn’t take long strolls along the street. I was happy every time I could get a baguette. And one day my mother and I packed a minimum of things into two backpacks. Almost no clothes. We left our 16-year-old cat with our relatives. And we set off. Yesterday I learned from the news that Lukyanivka got under shelling. Our house is not far from there. And I thought that we did the right thing leaving the city.”
“I couldn’t read because I was afraid of missing the siren.”
Every day the girl reads about some residential buildings of Kyiv being bombed from the sky, because the enemy ground troops cannot enter the city. And she hopes they won’t.
Maria is still afraid that a nuclear bomb might be dropped on Kyiv, but she expects our victory every second.
Translated by Alina Tsvietkova
