Andrii Kokorin, 52, och hans fru Mariia Borysova, 39, kommer aldrig att glömma dagen då de träffades. De höll på att restaurera ett gammalt kloster tillsammans i Ukraina - Andrii som snickare och Mariia som konstnär. 

"Jag gav dig min hand och du gav mig din.", säger Andrii. "Och jag insåg att det var kärlek." 

I dag bor paret i Storbritannien efter att ha flytt kriget i Ukraina tillsammans med sina fyra barn, Mariias föräldrar och deras älskade hund Rosie. Familjen tvingades lämna sitt hem och sitt företag som tillverkade barnmöbler och körde i fem dagar till Bulgarien. Där bodde de hos en vän till familjen i två månader innan de slutligen godkändes att få komma till Storbritannien. De bor nu tillsammans med sin värdfamilj Clara i Farnham, en stad sydväst om London. Här bygger de nu upp sina liv igen, men de hoppas på att en dag få återvända till Ukraina.

När Andrii och Mariia tvingades fly från sitt hem i Ukraina kunde de bara ta med sig några få saker, men de bar med sig så mycket mer till sitt nya hem i Storbritannien: förhoppningar och drömmar, erfarenheter, traditioner och familjehistorier, motståndskraft och beslutsamhet.

Se när Andrii och Mariia intervjuar varandra om att fly, deras familj och de förhoppningar och drömmar som de har burit med sig under hela resan.

Internationella flyktingdagen

Följ oss inför årets Internationella flyktingdag för att ta del av fler konversationer om flykt mellan generationer där de ställer varandra frågor och delar med sig av sina förhoppningar och drömmar.

Titta på fler konversationer och få reda på vad du kan kan göra för att stödja flyktingar

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Video Transcript

00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:07,300
[inaudible backgr. talk]

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00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:13,580
Well, two of your questions?

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First two questions of mine, then yours.

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[inaudible backgr. talk]

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Where are your questions [inaudible]?

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[inaudible backgr. talk]

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Gorgeous.

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[inaudible backgr. talk]

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Ah, may I?

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Do you remember how we met?

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Sure. I'll never forget it.

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You changed my life.

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I was working in a monastery, and a group
of artists came to us to paint the monastery.

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00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,460
I was in charge of the construction site
and we were going by each other for nine months.

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One day, the priest suggested making
the stonework of the floor more sophisticated

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and decorate it with mosaics.

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And that was the moment when you came along.

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This was our first co-project.

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00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:08,160
[inaudible backgr. talk]

20
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:10,820
Do you remember how we met?

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00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:13,860
Sure. It's impossible to remember... to forget that.

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I'll remember it for a lifetime.

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I was restoring the monastery, and some
artists came to us to paint the walls.

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And you were one of them. Passing by for nine
months, you didn't notice me, I didn't see you.

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And one day the priest suggested

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making the stonework of the floor
more sophisticated and add mosaics to it.

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That was the moment when you came along.

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And we did this project together.

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Yes.

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The first project we did together.

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Do you remember how you felt
when we first met?

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Of course. Unforgettable.

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We went by van to pick out
the stones for those mosaics,

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you sat down next to me, and,
by some divine providence, I gave you my hand,

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and you gave me yours.

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And I realized it was love.

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What is your happiest memory
of our life together?

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In Ukraine?

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In Ukraine.

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Well, this is, of course, our acquaintance
you've just told me about,

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the births of our four children,
Asya and the boys.

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Every day it was...
every time it was like a miracle.

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Two of them were born in Kyiv,
two in Kharkiv.

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And now, of course, I recall
a lot of those things,

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that we didn't appreciate when we were there.

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I think of our house, our apartment
in the center of Kharkiv.

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00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:04,380
Thank God it's intact now,
but it's empty, there's no one there.

48
00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:09,500
There's our stuff lying there
the way we left it, the beds spread out,

49
00:06:09,635 --> 00:06:14,740
when we ran away from home
in the morning of the 24th.

50
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Our garden, the place where our parents lived...

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now this territory is under occupation.

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I'm very... those memories,
they come whether I wake or sleep.

53
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And do you remember how you felt

54
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when we were running our business together?

55
00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,980
Yeah, that was great, that was...
as soon as we met,

56
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we started figuring out
what we could do together,

57
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how we can combine our talents.

58
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You, as an inventor, carpenter, constructor,

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and I, as an artist, a designer.

60
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:05,380
What we could do together,
we had all kinds of ideas.

61
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,740
And for five years we had our joint project,

62
00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:15,700
our children's furniture design studio.

63
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We started making furniture
for our own children,

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and then for other children in Ukraine.

65
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And we have a lot of clients who trusted us

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to furnish their kids' rooms.

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It was a very interesting project,

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and I hope that someway we can
keep it going, bring it back to life.

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Because, of course, it all ended
when the war started.

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All – the studio was left in Kharkiv,
all the equipment.

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We left, and, of course,
we didn't take anything with us.

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But I hope we have some perspective,

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But, most important, we have ourselves
with our mutual understanding and skills.

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And we'll definitely do something together,
like we always do.

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00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:10,180
Names.

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So, my question, right?

77
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Do you remember when we decided
to get out of the country, to leave Ukraine?

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00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:20,060
Names.

79
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[OOV] Wait.

80
00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:22,340
"How did you choo…"

81
00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:23,700
[OOV] A few more questions.

82
00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:24,700
Yeah, now, wait a moment.

83
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"Remember how we chose
the kids' names?"

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[OOV] Yes, first of all, kids in the beginning.

85
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Ah, OK.

86
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[OOV] Then they added...
about leaving Ukraine.

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They know that men are not allowed to go out...

88
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Yeah, and explain.

89
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[OOV] Yes, say why your husband managed to leave.

90
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OK.

91
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[OOV] Yes.

92
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"When did we decide
to leave Ukraine and how..."

93
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[OOV] And in this question, yes.

94
00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:45,500
Yep.

95
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[OOV] Tell us how you managed to...

96
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I will, yes, I will.

97
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[OOV] And then let's get back
to the kids.

98
00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,340
Okay, yes, I missed it then.
Now, I can't figure out where it is.

99
00:08:53,475 --> 00:08:56,060
"Do you remember how we chose
the kids' names?"

100
00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,160
Remember how we chose names for our kids?

101
00:09:03,295 --> 00:09:06,140
Of course. Every one of them,
as if it were today.

102
00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:12,340
Asya was the first, and we
unanimously decided to name her after her grandma,

103
00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:17,180
your grandmother Asya,
who passed away so suddenly.

104
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Unfortunately, I never got to meet her.

105
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I remember when we decided to name Petro Petro.

106
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He was born on the holiday.

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Because he was born
on St Peter and Paul's Day.

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And I remember it was so hard to choose
whether we would name him Petro or Pavlo.

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We felt a bit uncomfortable with St Peter
because we decided to name him Pavlo.

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With St Paul.

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With St Paul because
we decided to name him Petro.

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Still, it was Petro.

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I remember we decided to name
our second son Yuri, after my dad,

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who also passed away before his time,
and you never got to meet him.

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And I remember the joy we had

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exactly five years after Petro was born,

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when our third boy was born
on the same day, on the same holiday,

118
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and there was no longer
any doubt as to his name.

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There was no doubt.

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00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:17,540
And we named him Pavlo
after this great saint.

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00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,780
This is our family's little story.
A little family miracle.

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Do you remember how...
when we decided to leave Ukraine?

123
00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:33,260
And how worried were we about
which of us would go and who would stay?

124
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Yes, I do remember.

125
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It was not known until the end
whether I could leave Ukraine,

126
00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:44,700
being a father of four children.

127
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I wasn't sure if I could leave
the country legally.

128
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But it was how you felt
that decided everything.

129
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Those panic attacks that you
and our eldest daughter started to have.

130
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That constant terror, constant fear that
something might happen to the children.

131
00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:12,820
And that was probably the moment when
we decided to leave the country after all.

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00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:18,260
We were going, not knowing if you could go,
or you'd come back and we'd go ourselves.

133
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I was really scared because I cannot drive,

134
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you were driving, and thank God we did it.

135
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Yes, that was the question
until the last moment,

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00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:32,780
right up to the moment we crossed the border.

137
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And when we were crossing it, they took
my certificate of a father with many children,

138
00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,580
and they said, "You can leave,"
and I remember how happy you were,

139
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,100
that I could go on with you.

140
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I think our main task was to save our children,

141
00:11:50,455 --> 00:11:55,020
to preserve their lives, health,
and mental health,

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because the situation in Ukraine
was very destructive.

143
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But I was ready to return to Kharkiv, even
if they wouldn't let me out, you know it.

144
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It's good to have you with us.

145
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:13,620
There, I… [inaudible]

146
00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:18,740
How hard was it? How hard was it
for you to decide to leave Ukraine?

147
00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,380
Well... First we all thought we could
wait it out,

148
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that it would end quickly,
or it wouldn't be so scary,

149
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that, as the Russian government said,
civilians would not suffer.

150
00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:44,100
But this was not the case, because
Kharkiv is very close to the border,

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00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:50,340
it was more damaged in the early stage
than the other places.

152
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And I felt scared waking the kids up
every time,

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so that they would go to the basement,/Nto the shelter several times a night.

154
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That was the most horrifying thing
I've ever experienced.

155
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So the first chance we got,
when we realized we had to leave,

156
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It was scary, but it was the right decision,
and I didn't doubt it for a minute.

157
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:22,300
It was probably easy to leave,
but very sad and scary.

158
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I keep losing track of where we are.

159
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"How did you feel when we left Ukraine?"

160
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Yeah. And here's another one.
"What do you remember from your trip?"

161
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Go ahead.

162
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[OOV] You've missed one.

163
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"How were you feeling when...?"

164
00:13:46,275 --> 00:13:47,020
Uh-huh.

165
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:49,820
How did you feel when we left Ukraine?

166
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,380
Oh, that was a strange feeling.

167
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,340
Bitterness, on the one hand,
and great joy on the other,

168
00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:05,340
that our children will finally
feel a little safer.

169
00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:10,860
That you won't have
those creepy fears anymore.

170
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:13,820
Mixed feelings.

171
00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:17,780
I was very happy that we managed
to leave in two cars

172
00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:22,460
with our parents and even with our dog,
our Labrador Rosie.

173
00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:23,780
Yes.

174
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,780
Because the animals also suffered
a lot in this situation.

175
00:14:28,915 --> 00:14:31,620
Many people couldn't take
their animals.

176
00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,260
And those dogs tied up
next to the train station,

177
00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:40,580
that people couldn't take with them
on the train, they were just not allowed.

178
00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:42,900
That was terrible.

179
00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,620
Do you remember our trip to Bulgaria?
It took us five days to get there.

180
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:56,100
Yes, it was awful,
especially the last two days.

181
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,380
A 12-hour queue at the border.

182
00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:02,980
22.

183
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:08,460
22? I remember that I was going
with my brain on autopilot

184
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:13,500
I slept for five minutes, woke up,
and drove another 10 meters,

185
00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:17,860
I fell asleep again, woke up again,
and so on ad infinitum.

186
00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:21,660
The last kilometers were
especially difficult for me,

187
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:25,740
When we had already crossed the border
with Bulgaria, we crossed Romania...

188
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,540
We crossed the border into Bulgaria,
and a snowstorm started.

189
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:32,660
Remember that snowstorm
when we almost got lost in the snow?

190
00:15:32,795 --> 00:15:33,980
Snowfall. Yes.

191
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:37,900
And we couldn't afford to stop.

192
00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:44,460
It was nighttime, we were in the Bulgarian
mountains, and that snow all around,

193
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:49,340
And we are breaking through, like...
per aspera.

194
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,940
And that was probably
the brightest moment I remember.

195
00:15:54,920 --> 00:16:01,760
Asya, our eldest daughter,
had a fever of 39 and was sick,

196
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,100
because it's five days on the road,
and it's cold and...

197
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,540
It was a hard, hard ordeal.

198
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:14,780
I prayed that our old car, the minibus,
would not break up and drive us there.

199
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:17,740
The Lord is merciful – we did it.

200
00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:19,260
It did it.

201
00:16:19,395 --> 00:16:20,740
Yes, we did it.

202
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:29,980
Can I have some water? [inaudible]

203
00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:42,640
[inaudible backgr. talk]

204
00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,180
How did you feel when we got to the UK?

205
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:12,820
I guess it was the first time I felt it,

206
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,780
that feeling of home in those two months.

207
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,980
I don't know why – because
in Bulgaria I was feeling

208
00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:28,740
that we are at a crossroads,
that our journey is not over yet.

209
00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:33,340
And when we finally got our visas,

210
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:38,660
got on the plane, flew in, and got off,

211
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,020
met our wonderful family,
our sponsor Clara –

212
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:48,300
amazing woman, amazing family she has, –

213
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:52,780
I felt a kind of relief.

214
00:17:55,360 --> 00:17:59,700
It felt like, I don't know why,
that we were home.

215
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:03,660
Though it's a temporary home,
we'll be fine here.

216
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,260
When did you feel most welcome
in the UK?

217
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:19,180
Oh, I can't stop feeling it every day.

218
00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:25,860
But probably the first thing was
when we got to our apartment

219
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:31,620
that became ours for those six months.
We stepped in – everything was thought out...

220
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:33,820
With so much love.

221
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:35,620
With so much love, yes.

222
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:39,420
Toothbrushes prepared
for us and our children,

223
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,820
beds laid out, lots of toys.

224
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:48,500
Yura, who couldn't sleep until 2 a.m.
and came to us and...

225
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:49,980
...was playing Lego.

226
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,060
And it all gave a sense of home, yes.

227
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:58,460
and gratitude for all the hospitality
we have received.

228
00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:03,580
Smiling people in the street
still amaze me.

229
00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,420
And I feel like I'm at home

230
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,900
and it's just some relative of mine
walking and smiling at me.

231
00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:14,180
I feel this hospitality every day.

232
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,660
A lot of support from strangers.

233
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:27,380
And they want to hear our story
and lend a helping hand somehow.

234
00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,460
It's just amazing. I feel it, too.

235
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:36,340
Do you remember that lady
we met next to St. Andrew's Church?

236
00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:41,860
Who just started talking to us
about the situation in Ukraine and

237
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:45,900
that we and all four of our children
had to run away, started crying?

238
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,060
And it's amazing how much these people...

239
00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:53,460
What a big heart they have.

240
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:55,860
Yes, a big heart to perceive it that way.

241
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,980
Yes, I am very grateful to the UK
for sheltering us...

242
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:04,820
for giving us a true home.

243
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:07,100
Thank you.

244
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:20,940
Masha, please tell me about your paintings
related to the war in Ukraine.

245
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,140
Well, yes, all my works
painted before the war,

246
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,660
They were left in my art studio in Kharkiv.

247
00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:37,940
And now that this situation started,

248
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,700
I can't watch movies or listen to music.

249
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:46,100
I'm just beginning to see
some normalcy in my life.

250
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,700
And I also can't draw something abstract.

251
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:57,780
A beautiful landscape or
some kind of sketch, just for fun.

252
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:04,060
I really wanted to express
the storm of emotions,

253
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,460
so many feelings,
more than ever in my life.

254
00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:11,820
In fact, I couldn't draw for a month.

255
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:18,780
But one day I saw a picture of a woman,
a mother, all covered with wounds.

256
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,300
She had 25 small fragment wounds.

257
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:29,780
She was at home breastfeeding
her two-month-old daughter.

258
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:35,020
at the moment when a shell
or a fragment hit their apartment.

259
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:38,220
And she covered her child with herself.

260
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:44,540
The baby was unharmed, without a scratch,
and she was, like, very...

261
00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:48,180
Cut all over.

262
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:53,660
Hurt. Wounded, yes,
and she got operated afterwards.

263
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,060
And when I saw a picture of her,
the way she was sitting,

264
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,740
holding her baby, she reminded me
of the Virgin Mother.

265
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:08,060
There was so much grief, love, triumph,
so many different feelings in her eyes.

266
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,460
And that's when I got able to paint
and painted her portrait.

267
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:18,260
Well, the second portrait was of Asya,
our 14-year-old daughter,

268
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,900
who also perceived all these events
very intensely.

269
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:29,380
We live in the eastern region, in Kharkiv,

270
00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,820
where Russian is often spoken historically,

271
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,780
and you and I speak Russian
in our family, too.

272
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:43,980
But our children already know more,
it's easier for them to be bilingual.

273
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:49,180
And now Asya wants to...
she switched to Ukrainian language

274
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:52,740
and studies the history of Ukraine.

275
00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:58,540
She has such a great inspiration,
such patriotism born in her.

276
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,100
Well, not just her – all of us, of course.

277
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:06,700
But she, at her age, is the most receptive.

278
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:12,860
So I drew a portrait of her
in modern clothes, but on her arms,

279
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:19,100
right there, where there is usually a pattern
on the Ukrainian embroidered shirt

280
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,820
she has tattoos just like an embroidery.

281
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:29,460
I had the feeling that, first off,
she grew up really fast,

282
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:32,820
and secondly, she somehow...

283
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:41,420
the whole situation hurt her deeply.

284
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:48,540
But I think she's all right and the feelings
she's having right now,

285
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,100
they bring up a human in her.

286
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:01,460
[inaudible backgr. talk]

287
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:02,660
Yes?

288
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:03,820
Okay.
Me again.

289
00:24:04,060 --> 00:24:06,820
You again. Now, wait, let me take breath.

290
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,740
What are your hopes for our family's future?

291
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:29,780
It's a hard question because
we weren't preparing for war,

292
00:24:29,915 --> 00:24:33,700
And this situation, it got us off the rails.

293
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:36,220
When we had plans, right?

294
00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:38,700
Asya wanted to go to a theater university,

295
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,660
the boys attended their sports clubs,

296
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,420
we were working in our studio,
everything was clear.

297
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:52,420
Now everything is unclear.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie.

298
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,460
I mean, all of a sudden, I'm in London now.

299
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,580
And I look at myself a little bit from the outside.

300
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,740
It's hard for me to imagine
what's going to happen next.

301
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:07,340
Of course, all of us are hoping
that the war will be over.

302
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:12,540
We wait for it, every day we wait
for this madness to stop.

303
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:16,660
I guess we can't go back right away.

304
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:23,660
Because it would be very difficult
to come back on the same day.

305
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:29,260
But we hope, we look forward to it,
and we want to come back to our country.

306
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,940
It's important to me. But I've decided
that I'm going to live for today.

307
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,740
We're in the UK now, and we're fine here.

308
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:42,300
And while part of our heart, of our soul
is with our friends and loved ones,

309
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:47,660
that are in Ukraine, it's impossible
to live as if everything is fine.

310
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:54,180
But for the sake of our children and
for the future that will come anyway,

311
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,340
we are safe – that's the main thing.

312
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:01,380
I think everything will be fine. We carry on.
We're together, that’s the most important.

313
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,740
We can raise children and teach them.

314
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:13,020
I want them to learn to be as polite
and kind as the English.

315
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:21,020
Because we're in this environment
that's so... so... awesome.

316
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,020
Real gentlemen.

317
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,980
Yes. That's the main thing.

318
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:31,820
So your question again, right?

319
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:32,660
Yes.

320
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:38,620
The subject of this year's
International Refugee Day is:

321
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:43,300
refugees bring more
than they can take with them.

322
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,300
What do you think it means?

323
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,380
Well, I think that...

324
00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:59,180
I'll tell you as an artist: we can have some
kind of cultural exchange, it's interesting.

325
00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:04,460
I want our people, Ukrainians,
to be recognized

326
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:11,480
as a truly free-spirited and strong nation.

327
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:13,820
That's what we are.

328
00:27:16,109 --> 00:27:20,120
And I'm very glad that the whole world
stands with us

329
00:27:20,732 --> 00:27:22,940
and supports us.

330
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,460
But we want to show our best side
so that our compatriots,

331
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,620
could bring really good things to the table.

332
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,540
Because we have interesting culture.

333
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,300
On the artistic aspect, there are
a lot of amazing artists.

334
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:48,540
I want to have a cultural exchange

335
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:53,220
with English artists, to see what they do.

336
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,780
So you think this is exactly
what the refugees bring

337
00:27:57,915 --> 00:27:59,860
to the countries they arrive in?

338
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,380
I hope they do more good than bad.

339
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,860
Well, people are different.
But I think we can...

340
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,700
I can't say anything right now,
there's a lot of thoughts.

341
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:25,620
I think that's it for this question.
I wanted to tell more, but...

342
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:27,580
[inaudible backgr. talk]

343
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,900
[OOV] Start answering this question anew
if you like.

344
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:31,940
If not, you can leave it as it is.

345
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:35,540
It's an important question, I understand.

346
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:42,460
[inaudible backgr. talk]

347
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:01,020
[OOV] Would you like to try again?

348
00:29:01,155 --> 00:29:02,620
Maybe you have something to say?

349
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:04,260
[OOV] You answered perfectly.

350
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,140
Really? All right, yeah. I'm sorry,
I had more on my mind.

351
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:10,140
I can' t build up a thought right now.

352
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:11,500
I think it's fine.

353
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:12,820
Was that the last one?

354
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:13,820
Yes.

355
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:20,880
[inaudible backgr. talk]

356
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:40,940
Bravo.

357
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:42,100
Thank you.

358
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:49,140
[OOV] Thank you. As I understood it...
[inaudible] the audience...

359
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:51,340
I was the only one watching.

360
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:55,940
I am so grateful to you for this, I have
no words. I've never met you in person...

361
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:57,300
[inaudible]