Ukrainians in Kilkenny: ‘We are so grateful for all of the help and assistance’

The sound of planes flying overhead still makes Oleksandr ‘Alex’ Yevsiutin stop what he is doing and look up. The 39-year-old’s first thought is of danger.

The Ukrainian national forgets that he has been living in the village of Kells, Co Kilkenny, with his wife Natasha (38) and their children Oleksandr (13), Anastasia (11) and Davyd (eight) for the past few weeks.

The aircraft he hears now are commercial flights rather than war planes.

"Of course I worry when I hear an airplane overhead, it's a reactionary feeling," he says. "The sound of an airplane to me now means trouble and all that brings with it. I worry for those we left behind and the Ukraine we love and what it is becoming."

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Oleksandr no longer worries for himself and his family, but for relatives they left behind – his father, brother, mother-in-law and brother-in-law were unable to leave Ukraine.

It has been a month since they were forced to leave their home in Ladyzhyn in southwest Ukraine, a rural but bustling medieval town of more than 22,000 people. A nine-day journey saw the family move by foot, on a special evacuation train to Warsaw, Poland, then on to France by commercial rail and finally a ferry to Rosslare Europort in Co Wexford.

The family chose to come to Ireland, Oleksandr says, because a distant relative whom they lodged with in Warsaw for a day on their journey knew someone in the Irish consulate who said it would be a "good place to come to".

“Plus I have a little English but it’s important for the children to learn the language and feel safe again, which they are now doing day by day.”

They had no plans to leave Ladyzhyn, but Oleksandr felt for a couple of months prior to Russia's invasion that war was inevitable. He believes Vladimir Putin invaded the country to grab land and try to halt any plans Ukraine had to join the European Union and Nato.

When the shelling and bombing of nearby Vinnytsia occurred, Oleksandr says the family felt pressured to leave with just the bare necessities. He was allowed out of the country due to having three children, a stipulation which meant he was not automatically conscripted into the military.

Life in Kells and Dunamaggin, with a combined population of between 300 and 400 people, is very different to the chaos they left. It is a farming community steeped in history, much like Ladyzhyn, but to the Yevsiutins everything is a new experience that they never envisaged, desired or wanted.

The local community has enveloped them since their arrival, and the fear and trauma visited upon them by the war have eased somewhat.

Within a week of deciding to contact the Kilkenny Ukraine Response Team, community activists living in the parish decided to put their desire to help into action. Friends Liam O'Sullivan, a business executive with biotech firm Sanofi, and Stephanie McDermott, a lecturer at St Patrick's Carlow College, brought together a team of local volunteers. They talked about helping and within days were greeting Oleksandr and his family at Rosslare Harbour.

Since the Yevsiutins stepped off the ferry they have been immersed in the local environs and culture. The children are making friends at school and getting involved in sports and other activities.

The family has been hosted by McDermott in Kells in a converted garage at the back of her home while renovations are carried out a short distance away at the former parochial house in Dunamaggin, where they were due to move. The use of the house, vacant for almost five years due the dwindling number of priests, was approved by the Apostolic Administrator of Ossory, Bishop Denis Nulty.

“We wanted to take the family into the community and not into just a house,” says O’Sullivan.

Anastasia is in 5th class and Davyd is in 2nd class at St Leonard's National School in Dunamaggin, while Oleksandr Jnr has started 1st year at Ballyhale Secondary School.

O’Sullivan adds: “The community came together and agreed that we could do this and by this we mean pulling out all the stops with time, resources and finances. There is a dedicated WhatsApp group, even a rota system of who collects the children from school and bringing their parents wherever they need to go.

“Every community can do this, it shouldn’t be down to the Government to sort this, it should be each and everyone of us – a bottom up approach. There is so much solace that can be experienced by knowing you are helping.

“It’s not all about doing good for Ukraine – it’s a two-way process for communities too. We have so much to learn from them. It’s transformational. The war is no longer thousands of kilometres away, its affects are now on our doorstep and it opens our eyes, I believe, a lot more,” he continues.

“We weren’t going to allow the family to be dropped off at a hotel without any interpreters and basic necessities which sadly is happening countrywide. The community wanted them to be part of us from the moment they arrived.”

For the Yevsiutins, farming was their way of life. Oleksandr worked as a farmer and hopes to continue that in Kilkenny but is happy to do “whatever type of work” he can find.

Within a day of arriving in Kilkenny, the family had all of the necessary Government documentation needed along with approved State payments. But for McDermott, an initiator of Rohingya Action Ireland, bureaucracy is slowing the integration of Ukrainians arriving in Ireland.

“We are dealing with the Red Cross who are doing a good job but all the red tape is slowing down the process of the Yevsiutins immersing themselves into life here. The bureaucracy means they’ve not yet moved into the parochial house,” she says.

“The Red Cross are dealing with urban dwellings first and not rural premises, which is impacting on the process and causing significant delays. They have no experience dealing with this type of thing here. County councils countrywide need to have their housing officers involved in this as they have the knowledge of the rural areas.

“Communities need to be enabled to help put in the necessary systems instead of it being a top down approach . . . My fear is that we will end up having a direct provision scenario for Ukrainians arriving here, which we all know doesn’t work.”

The Yevsiutins never expected to be made “to feel so welcome”, Oleksandr says. “When we arrived here we were filled with stress as our families are still living in a war zone and of course we will always carry fear with us for them.

“But we are so grateful for all of the help and assistance we have received from everyone here. We never expected any of it. We’ve not experienced any negative feelings or experiences yet. The quality of life is much better than back home, we are even trying foods we have never heard of before, such as lasagne.”

There is still a fear in Oleksandr and Natasha, who know the lives they had are no longer theirs and that this was, he says, decided by a man “who is a threat to the whole world not just our family and country”.