Ukrainians in Jersey 'dreaming' of end to war

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago, 37 Ukrainians have resettled in Jersey

On Friday, a memorial service is being held and earlier this week St Helier councillors voted for the capital to be been twinned with the city of Mykolaiv.

Svitlana Antonyuk is among those to have moved and said she was "dreaming of victory and an end to this".

Ms Antonyuk and her daughters arrived in Jersey via the government-organised Family Scheme.

Though they are grateful to be here, they miss life back in their home city of Mykolaiv, where her mother and grandmother remain.

Ms Antonyuk said: "This is my grandmother's second war. She survived the Second World War.

"In her village there was an air bombardment, my grandmother was 14 at the time and she covered her younger sister with herself.

"The bullet went through my grandma and hit the little girl's head and killed her. Throughout the life of my grandmother she has lived with part of this bullet in her body.

"And now, she is being bombed again."

Mykolaiv has been affected by air strikes for more than 300 days over the last year.

Lera Evered has helped organise a concert for Friday evening, and has been been supporting the Ukrainian community in Jersey throughout the last year.

Ms Evered has lived in Jersey for the last 30 years and has remained in contact with her aunt in Kyiv throughout the conflict

She said: "You can see how people are tired because they don't get normal sleep, there is constant interruption with air raids.

"They don't know when it is going to happen, it can be 03:00 in the morning, it can be 05:00, it can be Midday, it can be two, three times a day, so you're constantly in this unpredictable stressed situation.

"It's wearing people out but they're still managing to go on with their daily lives. I simply don't know how they do it."

Ms Evered said the support from Jersey was "hugely appreciated" and that even in conversations with strangers she "feels the empathy immediately".

Four days after the invasion, the Jersey-Polish Ukrainian Appeal was launched and ended up sending 367 pallets of supplies to Poland and Ukraine.

Magda Chmielewska, who organised the appeal, is the Honorary Polish Consul for the Channel Islands.

Among the donations was a coat from a man in Jersey, with a handwritten note he had put into the pocket.

The note included his email and phone number, asking if he could be of any further help.

Ms Chmielewska said: "He was contacted by a person in Ukraine who received his coat.

"The message from the gentleman was: 'I am sitting underground, the bombs are flying overhead, it's minus five degrees but I have your coat and I feel lovely and warm, thank you so much'."

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