“We were lucky to have reacted this quickly”, explained Michel Sinner, who made sure that the three relatives of his Ukrainian partner have a safe home to get through this difficult time. Lilia Thomashchuk’s parents and grand mother are among the first Ukrainian refugees to make it to the Grand Duchy.
Lilia, who has been living in Luxembourg since 2019, commented: “For the moment we have no idea what will happen next. We are now looking to organise the bare necessities, like clothes, because they did not manage to pack a lot of things.”
Husband Michel also noted: “I heard that next Thursday, a European regulation is set to be introduced to help treat all Ukrainian refugees equally. We will see how that affects our situation and how we can provide more help.”
The three Ukrainians already abandoned their apartments in the northeast of the country about two weeks ago and moved more towards the centre of Ukraine. Sinner noted: “They initially came from Kharkiv, which is why we were worried about the Russian troops moving into the region.”
The family already travelled 1,500 kilometres to Mukachevo in the mid of February. After Russia started invading Ukraine, the refugees saw to it that they would get on a bus to Slovakia as fast as possible. Here, Sinner and Thomashchuk picked up their relatives and drove them to Luxembourg with their car.
Sinner further commented: “My partner’s grand mother is almost blind and nobody in the family speaks any other language. This means the only choice we had was get in the car and drive the 3,000 kilometres there and back again.”
Even though parents and grand mother made their escape, Lilia’s sister and her partner remain stuck in Kharkiv, one of the cities constantly being attacked by Russians. Fleeing is not an option at the moment, as the streets are not considered save enough to use.
