Ukrainian refugee talks about life in Blaenavon after war

Before Russian forces invaded her country, Ukraine, she was a magazine editor, journalist and writing coach in her beloved city, the capital, Kyiv.

“One day before, I met with my students online. One night later, and all my life was ruined. I couldn’t understand what to do.

“What could I do for my people?” she said, as if the peril was still fresh. “I’m a journalist, and I could be more helpful as a journalist. At first, I was dying because I couldn’t do anything. All systems of my organism stopped.”

In her new town, more than 1,400 miles from Kyiv, Ms Avramchuk can appreciate her people's strength at the time as well as shock.

Mariia and Olena feel they made the right choice coming to Wales (Image: Olena Avramchuk)

Within days, she joined a volunteer information group who made it their mission to explain breakneck developments to the public and international reporters.

Two years on, she still describes her homeland as a “big country of volunteers”.

“I am not the only example," she said. "I don’t want to say about me. This is an example of everyone in Ukraine.”

'We are here, but where are you?'

In March 2022, the Avramchuks moved west, further from the Russian offence. Their hosts in Ternopil - a husband, wife, grandmother and five children - had three rooms and gave one to them.

In April, she helped some friends move to the UK. They knew the English language better than most and enjoyed British culture and literature.

The journalist had visited the UK before, including a trip to Scotland just eight years prior. She also gushes over London - her “favourite city ever”. But she never planned to make it her home.

Even three months after the invasion, she stayed in Ukraine. She remembers a question from her friends who made the leap. “We are here,” they said, “but where are you?”

She posted an appeal on Facebook and received two concrete offers by the following day. The first: two rooms with a well-connected family in West London. The second: a widow in Wales, who said: “If you like wet summers, will you share my house with me?”

Olena’s teenage daughter, Mariia, chose the latter. They arrived in Newport on June 4. She can laugh about it now - her host’s offer of a “wet summer” preceding one that was historically hot.

'Great intuition'

They later moved in with a couple from Blaenavon. Olena works as a teaching assistant and Mariia, having discarded the Americanisms she absorbed in Ukraine, is doing well at her English-medium school.

“Wales was just her intuition,” Ms Avramchuk said. “I had only been to England and Scotland; she had never been to the UK. But she said: ‘Mum, I want to live with this lady in Wales’. It was great intuition and I appreciate her for this decision.”

Ms Avramchuk praises her daughter's intuition for choosing Wales over West London (Image: Sam Portillo)

The proud Ukrainian has grown fond of Wales. She took friends from her English course to Big Pit and Raglan Castle and meditates at the Keeper’s Pond. On a bus journey home, she watches the landscape pass her by and proclaims its status as a UNESCO heritage site.

“I love these people, the history,” she said. “I know the history of this region - the coal miners. All lines lead to Blaenavon for me. I feel like these people are my relatives. They can share their emotions and lives with me.

“It’s very important, for me to be Ukrainian here, to know your Welsh history and share it. We can love Wales like you.”

Ms Avramchuk aspires to set up a Ukrainian library in Cardiff and a British library in Kyiv - a “cultural bridge” spanning a continent. And as her English improves, she wants to become a journalist again.

Those months of intense personal peril, and her country's ongoing fight for its future, have made her strong. The only time her emotion breaks through is when she answers a question about war in the world: “All the war - in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere - how does it make you feel?”

She takes a moment to find the words. “As a journalist, I can say war is a constant of our world. It’s very bad for humans. If we understand that, we can have an opportunity to stop it. We don’t want to continue.

“We need to protect before the war, because once it starts, it’s very difficult to end. Our institutions are very old, and we need to change them to solve the problem. Your King said, many years ago, about modernisation. Even the royal family needs to be modernised to change our world.”