‘We didn’t hear from her for 24 hours and assumed the worst’

VLADA Gorbunova is a relieved woman at the moment, as her grandmother managed to leave her war-torn home in the east of Ukraine, traverse the country and finally cross the Polish border to safety, writes Owen Ryan.

Vlada, who lives in Ennis and first came to Ireland in 1997, was in Krakow when she spoke to the Champion on Wednesday, and was looking forward to getting home.

“We’re just trying to sit tight now until our flights on Friday evening.”

Her grandmother is about to turn 75, and has been through a traumatic few weeks, as well as having to leave her home behind. It has been a huge ordeal, Vlada says.

“She’s tired, anxious, the whole lot. She’s left her life behind so it’s not easy.”

At the same time she was lucky to get away from a terrible situation that was still declining. “She’s relieved, things have got a lot worse since she left. She got one of the last trains out of there so it was a relief.”

From her home town of Lisichansk, she first travelled to Kharkiv, before going on to Kyiv, and then to Lviv in the east of Ukraine, before getting across the border.

Vlada said that they haven’t spoken much about the war as of yet, with the memories still very fresh. Would her grandmother hope to get back home someday?

“Ah, I don’t know yet, it depends on what way things work out. There mightn’t be a home to go back to, with the bombing and everything.”

Not only has her grandmother never been to Ireland before, she has never been to western Europe.

Vlada travelled alone to Poland to collect her, and bring her to Clare, while three neighbours of her grandmother, people who have known each other all their lives, are also travelling with them.

Obviously Vlada is very relieved to have her grandmother in a safe place once again.

“I’m relieved that we managed to meet up and obviously that she’s out of there.

“I’m just anxious now to get home to Ireland and to get her settled in.”

While the situation was very concerning since war began, it was particularly worrying last week for Vlada.

“It has been a tough time. We got news last Wednesday that she had got on the train, but it took forever to get through the Polish border and everything. We didn’t hear her from her for 24 hours and we assumed the worst for a while.”

Vlada says she is still processing the whole matter herself, and will be glad to get back home to Clare with her grandmother.