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A Piece of Home, A Piece of Hope, Hungary
When staying was no longer safe
This story is part of the series “A piece of home, a piece of hope” featuring the voices of displaced Ukrainians.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the following day at 8 am UA woman left Kyiv with her friends. Initially, they were not planning to leave, they just wanted to find a safe shelter from the bombs and missiles in the metro. On their way there, however, they learned that Russian helicopters were approaching Kyiv, likely with troops to be airdropped to the city. At that moment, it struck her that Kyiv might be surrounded and taken. Friends realized the situation was becoming critical and that staying in the city was dangerous. UA woman felt like if she didn’t leave right away, she might not get another chance.
Fleeing Kyiv was scary. They knew that people were shot in their cars on the roads and had no idea which direction would be safe. UA woman called a friend, who confirmed that the highway leading out from the city through Obukhiv, a suburban town south of Kyiv, was still clear.
They hit the road and started thinking about where they could go only when they were already driving. There were three friends and UA woman of the story. She felt as in an American action movie where something terrible was happening. She was so scared, the whole body was shaking and trembling and could not calm down.
All of them were afraid that rockets could hit anytime and anywhere and kept looking up at the sky to make sure there were no planes or helicopters.
With a couple of calls, they learned that UA woman’s hometown, Kropyvnytskyi, 300 kilometres to the southeast from Kyiv, was not an option. They were expecting Russian troops landing in that area, too. By today, we know it was just rumours, but back then they didn’t want to take any chances.
This is how after a 220-kilometre-long stressful journey friends ended up in the tiny village of Dibrovintsy in the Orativ district, close to the city of Vinnytsia, where her friend’s grandmother lived, and a small village felt much safer than the capital. UA woman ended up in the home of a local family there. She had not known these people before, but in those fearful days, they became like family to her.
Each air raid alarm, however, drove UA woman into a strong panic. She was constantly afraid that a missile could hit anywhere, and her life could end. So, the artist decided it would be better for her mental health if she left the country. It was on 8 March, on International Women’s Day, when UA woman realised, that she could not stay there any longer. Two weeks later, friends hit the road again and arrived in Hungary in the middle of the night at the border crossing village Vylok on the Ukrainian side.
Why Hungary and why Budapest?
It was an absolutely logical choice for UA woman. She had friends living here and understood that, especially in her emotional and mental state that time, she needed to live in a city where she knew somebody and where somebody knew her. Budapest, however, was love at first sight. UA woman is deeply influenced by aesthetic beauty, and this city felt truly magical. It is incredibly beautiful, with breathtaking architecture that instantly captured her heart. Now she has been living here for over three years, and she’s still in awe. Budapest inspires every single day.
UA woman came to Hungary without her family. Her sister was in the seventh month of her pregnancy when the Russian invasion began, so she and her husband, could not travel. Soon after she gave birth to her son, they followed UA woman to Hungary with their new-born baby. Today, they live all together in Budapest.
As for UA woman’s life before the war, for the last ten years she worked in Kyiv as a producer at a TV channel on different programs like social talk shows, reality shows and other entertainment programs, with the Top Model of Ukraine being probably the best known of them. She also did a huge live dancing show with 500 dancers on the stage through several seasons for “Inter”, one of the biggest TV channels in Ukraine. The title of this show was a mixed Ukrainian-English play on words: “Maidan’s”. The name of Kyiv’s famous central square was used and added the letter “s” to it, and if you try it with an English pronunciation, what you get is: “My Dance”.
When UA woman arrived in Budapest, it soon became clear that a lot of movies are shot in Hungary. Not only local productions, but foreign ones, too, including big budget Hollywood films. She joined a Hungarian production company in June 2022, which shoots music videos. In addition, she is also involved in several Hungarian productions and have produced a pilot for a series, filmed a series in Ukraine, and work on a Ukrainian-Polish feature film co-production titled “House of Europe”. It is planned to film most of the scenes in Hungary.
UA woman and her colleagues also won a grant from a French national TV channel for a Ukrainian documentary TV series. It is called “Carlos in Ukraine”. She is the executive producer and the whole concept is based on her idea. The story is about an American journalist who decided to go to Ukraine after the full-scale war started in 2022, and film his own documentary about how ordinary people live in Ukraine in the time of war.
Focus on vital social projects through video production
UA woman’s top goal today, however, is even more ambitious. She have started working on the creation of a charitable organization that would focus on vital social projects through video production. Video will be the impactful tool for talking about pressing social issues that are relevant across the globe. Now, they are at the stage of trying to get the first project off the ground. It is a social impact project centring around a short film on refugee women across the world that tells their story in the language of dance. Based on this dance film organisation plans to launch a large global social campaign to raise money to help refugee women with children. Another project idea is to show how volunteers work and support people.
They hope to raise enough money and help a lot these volunteer organisations at the end. At the moment, UA woman is looking for funding for these two projects.
Hungary is really a great country. She likes the landscape, the city, the culture, everything. By now, UA woman has realised that Hungarian language is a very difficult one. She tries to learn it, but it is so difficult. Still, when she arrived there, she didn’t speak either English or Hungarian. This hugely limited the ability to communicate, and opportunities in everyday life. It was a challenge to build connections and find people who could support her activities. UA woman is very grateful to those people who helped her. They became very close to her – and will remain forever.
Media Sources of the Story
Based on publicly available interviews and reports.
Self-reflection questions
Now let’s reflect on the story. Read the following questions and try answering it.
- Which aspects of the journey do you find most inspiring or impactful?
- What challenges faced by women in similar situations do you recognize in this story?
- How would you deal with such challenges if you were in her position?
- In your opinion, which strategies used in this story may serve as good examples for others?
- Which skills do you think played the most important role in UA woman’s success?
Self-check questions
Read each of the 5 questions carefully and select the best answer from the options provided.