‘I don’t want to die during the war’

Ukrainian teenager pleads with her mother prior to fleeing bloody conflict

A Ukrainian refugee, who is now living in Ennis, has revealed her eldest daughter asked to be killed because she didn’t want to die during the bloody war.

Maryna Biriukova-Stefaniuk is one of five Ukrainian adults and five children who are now residing with her friend Mariya Nikishanova in Park Avenue, Ennis.

The 35 year-old mother was forced to flee Kyiv with her two daughters, Anna-Mariya (9) and Solomiia (13) due to safety concerns.

In a heart-wrenching interview with The Clare Champion, Maryna said she wanted to stay close to her husband but her eldest daughter, Solomiia started crying and pleaded with her “please kill me because I don’t want to die”.

“She was hysterical, she couldn’t stop crying and was hiding under a coat. It was very very scary. There were lots of tears. We decided we would leave. We had 30 minutes to pack all of our things. My husband, Amatolii took us to the railway station and we had 15 minutes to sit in the train and then we were gone. That was the speed of our decision.”

She said the Russians were basing their military strikes on old maps, but the infrastructure has now totally changed.

“I saw all the tanks, all the battles. A bomb was dropped near my friend’s house. A military place was located on an old map. But now there are houses with people. The Russians looked at old map and said we bomb there.

“I need weeks to try and understand what I saw from my window. It was very scary. When the war started my father was trying to contact me at 3am to warn me. They were fighting on my street from 2 to 6am. My father was scared because I didn’t pick up the phone

“When we got up we saw buildings, roads and bridges in ruins. When the fighting starts you just wish your house is safe. I wish there was a reason for this war but there is no reason.”

One of the cruelest aspects of the war is the way it has split families, leaving them thousands of miles apart.

“We can never feel fully safe because my parents and husband are still in Kyiv. This is why I get up at night and wonder are things okay in Kyiv or did a bomb land on their house?”

Maryna warned all the normal rules of war are not being observed by the Russians.

“There are no rules in this war. Russians are doing what they want.” A friend in Russia who posted a petition against the war, had a Z placed on her door, her phone was monitored, cameras were watching her until she managed to go go Lithuania.

If this woman stayed, Maryna stressed she would now be in prison.

“If someone in Russia writes the word war, they can be fined or put in prison for up to 15 years at the authorities discretion. Russia are calling the war a “special operation to save the People’s Republic’”. Putin says Ukrainians are Nazis and he is saving the world from Nazis.”

She recalled her parents were forced to flee from Luhansk to a small village near Kyiv when war broke out in 2014.

“My parents had to move to Kyiv to live with us. They said ‘we are not going to move a second time, if we die, we die. My mother, who is a doctor, said it is very hard to lose your home a second time and make a new life.

When the war broke out, Amatolii offered to become part of the local defence forces protecting Kyiv, but he was told they had enough people and should continue working.

However, if he is needed to increase the protection of the capital city, he will volunteer to join the battle to protect this key location.

Maryna said reports that Russia was not observing humanitarian corridors for fleeing refugees as Russian soldiers allegedly shot unarmed civilians on a so-called safe route in 2014.

She is very grateful to the Irish Government for waiving the visa requirement for Ukrainian refugees who are entering the country.

“We have received a very warm welcome from people in Poland and Ireland. We flew from Warsaw to Dublin Airport. People should continue giving donations and providing information of what is happening in Ukraine, which is equally as important.

She said her parents want to return to Luhansk and live in an independent Ukraine without any Russian control.

“We don’t want to be freed by Russia. Putin says Ukraine will release bombs on Belarus. Then he will put bombs on Belarus from the Ukrainian side from Russian planes and blame Ukraine.

“He bombed the maternity hospital and said Ukraine did this. He says something is going to happen and then he does it. The Chernobyl Power Station was without electricity and he would not let Ukrainian electricians fix it. It is crazy.

“We are afraid because we don’t know what he will do next. Putin may say Ukraine wants to attack Poland and then he attacks Poland. It is all very illogical. Russians are used to being involved in wars all over the world in places like Georgia and Syria.
“Putin has used Belarus to launch an attack on Ukraine from the North. Belarus people are now afraid and don’t want men to be mobilised and used to fight in Ukraine.

Maryna said Putin describes Donetsk and Luhansk as “People’s Republic”, where he effectively installed his own presidents and the Russian currency.

Six years ago, Mariya Nikishanova came to live in Clare following in the footsteps of her husband, Sergii when he got a job as a software engineer with Intel in Shannon.

The couple, who are living in Ennis, have two children aged five and eight.

Their home is now accommodating Mariya’s sister, Olanna and her daughter, Mariya (5) her mother, Nataliia (70), Maryna and her two daughters, who all fled from Ukraine.