Older people’s stories

Tatiana meets daily with other Ukrainian refugees in Moldova to practice Nordic walking together.

Mykola (64) and his wife Nataliia (65) fled the war in Ukraine and are now helping spread kindness within their displaced community.

I was born on July 12, 1941, as bombs were falling. My father named me ‘Viktoria’ for victory, anticipating a win over the Nazi invaders.

I am from Lyadova in Vinnytsia Oblast, near the Moldovan border, but I moved to a suburb of Kyiv with my daughter, Olga (46), and granddaughter Anastasiia (15), four years ago.

I was born in 1935 in Poltava, and when I was seven, we moved to Russia. For three years, we had nothing to eat, but my mother worked at an orphanage, and she gave us water mixed with flour, and that is how we survived. It was very, very hard.

Ekaterina arrived in Moldova along with thousands of other refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. Having just crossed the border, she shares her experience.

I am a widow. I was born in this village and worked first as a nurse and then as a midwife until I retired.

I am 71. I live in a village located five kilometres from the contact line. I have been a widow for 14 years. I live alone in a small house. I have a son, a grandson, a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren, they all live in the uncontrolled territory of Ukraine.

I am a widow, I live alone. My daughter lives in another city, she visits me sometimes, to help me around the house and in the yard.