'Living in Tipperary, I didn’t know if my family in Ukraine was still alive or not’

“You start a new life from zero, with just one suitcase”.

That is how Nataliia Verhovna from Ukraine describes the trauma of having her and her family’s lives turned upside down since the Russian invasion of their country just over a year ago, which has forced thousands to flee their homes and move to another country in search of refuge.

Nataliia is one of 30 Ukrainians staying at the Hillcrest Guesthouse at Ard na Greine, Clonmel, since July 7 of last year, having arrived in Ireland via Turkey.

When the war started she and her husband Serhii, 15-year-old daughter Diana and 3 year-old son Oleksander fled their home in the capital Kyiv, waving sad farewells to their friends and family, who included their 16-year-old son Kyrylo, who initially decided to stay with Nataliia’s parents.

“I hadn’t any connection with my family for months, I didn’t know if they were alive or not,” she says.

“I was very worried about Kyrylo, I knew of situations where the Russian army has captured boys and forced them to fight in their army. My parents are old and it’s very difficult for them.

“The village where my parents live was occupied by Russian troops from the first day of the war”.

Conditions there were extremely challenging, with the bombardment of and damage caused to power stations meaning that people had to survive without water, electricity or heat.

She recalls the family’s escape from the village where her parents live, and having to run the gauntlet of passing scores of heavily-armed Russian troops and columns of tanks.

“It was very scary and very dangerous. We had to walk four kilometres to where the bus was leaving, and when it wasn’t there we had to walk four kilometres back home again”.

The family went through this ritual every day for ten days before they eventually made their escape.

Kyrylo later moved to western Ukraine, before spending a few months with a host family in Germany before joining his own family in Clonmel.

Above: The Verhovna family enjoy a day out last Christmas

As they adjust to life a couple of thousand miles from their homeland, her husband Serhii has secured a job at the medical equipment manufacturer Abbott Vascular, while Nataliia has enrolled on an art course at the Central Technical Institute (CTI).

Like her friend and fellow Ukrainian in Hillcrest, Maryna Yurieva, she too enjoys the weekly sessions with the South Tipperary Art Group (STAG), and is also grateful to the group’s organiser Maureen Purcell for all her support.

“Maureen helped us to get bicycles and clothes when we arrived. She’s very nice and is full of energy”.

Nataliia says no one knows when the war will end and, like Maryna Yurieva, she’s concerned about the long-term effects of landmines planted in Ukraine by Russian forces.

“It can take up to 70 years to remove mines. Even mines from the Second World War were discovered in recent years in Ukraine”.

Facing an uncertain future, Nataliia says “Our generation has a foggy future, we cannot plan”.

By the same token, she and her family are grateful for the opportunities that their new home has afforded them.