The Pyatikhatko family came to Uzhgorod last August. They came from Gorlivka in Donetsk region, where active combat operations had begun then. We visited this friendly family to hear about their road to a peaceful life. The head of the family, Roma, is now on a business trip. His wife Olga says that her husband found work almost immediately after their arrival here. She has not found work yet, so she helps other IDPs to settle in the new place.
“Militia were assuring: do not worry, there will be no shooting here”
“Originally I am from Vinnytsia region, I met my husband in Kyiv, where we lived for some time – Olga says. – Then we moved together to Gorlivka where my husband comes from. There, a friend suggested us to live in his apartment, gradually paying out its price. Last autumn, we were supposed to pay the last intallment and get registered in a new home, but we had to leave everything and go away.
When last spring riots, pro-Russion demonstrations and then capturing of administrative buildings started in Gorlivka, another our friend gathered us all and said, “Something very bad is happenning. We must leave here until it’s too late.” Of all the people he was trying to persuade, we were the only one to agree with him. He was the first to sell his house and move to Uzhgorod. My husband and I helped him move – that was the first time we saw the city. When we came back, we realized how serious the situation was. Immediately after that we started to plan moving. First, we packed two huge boxes and sent them with postal service to Vinnytsia. To bring the boxes to the post office, we had to be examined by the militias. They even tore those boxes to make sure that there really was only children’s clothing there. Then, in late May, I took my daughters – Samira and Ariana – to my mother’s in Vinnytsia region. Travelling by train was dangerous, our train was standing in a field for several hours. It was very frightening.
Then I came back – for the husband and the rest of things. The situation in Gorlivka was already turbulent. My husband saw his former school friends – mostly, drug addicts and alcoholics – carrying guns around. We were told: do not worry, everything will be fine, there will be no shooting here. That’s why few people left, everybody hoped that it would be all right. Now people regret. There is one friend who wants to leave but can not. He has no money, doesn’t want to sell the apartment. Now, apartments in Gorlivka are very cheap – 3 thousand dollars. And no one wants to buy anyway. So he is stranded there, poor thing.
On the day, when we wanted to leave, I woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning, looked out the window, and we have a pretty good view to ourskirts of Donetsk. I saw explosions far away, smoke. On that day, we did not risk to leave. And after some time, we took our old minibus from the friend’s summer house (keeping it at home was risky – they could have taken him away), quickly loaded the things and left. The problem was that there was Vinnytsia registration in our passports (we had to be registered at the parents’ place), which meant that anything could have happened at the separatist checkpoints.
