Student Mariia Yakymenko, living near Bury St Edmunds, speaks of ‘incredible welcome’ from the UK and wanting ‘victory for Ukraine’
“I just don’t understand why people fight.”
These are the words of 19-year-old Ukrainian student Mariia Yakymenko, who fled her homeland in 2022 at the start of the war.
Mariia’s life changed overnight when Russia invaded Ukraine and the teenager now lives with a host family near Bury St Edmunds, with her family back home.
In an interview with SuffolkNews, she spoke of the ‘incredible welcome’ from everyone she had met in the UK, with ‘amazing’ support from her host family and sixth form college.
Mariia works at a hotel in Bury and is taking A-levels at Abbeygate Sixth Form College in chemistry, maths and biology, with ambitions to become a doctor.
Before the war, she lived in Kyiv with her family: mum Alla, dad Oleksandr and little sister Yaroslava.
When the war just started they left in the evening on the very first day and went to stay with her grandparents in their remote village, about 90km from Kyiv.
One of Mariia’s most vivid memories of when war broke out was the car journey to her grandparents’ home.
They stopped at a supermarket and her parents went inside, leaving Mariia and her sister in the car. It was dark and a helicopter was flying low.
Mariia said: “I just had this feeling everything was just going to explode. I was with my sister and just literally crying, I didn’t want to finish that way.”
The helicopter flew over without incident, but the anxiety of the experience has left a lasting impression on Mariia.
“I still remember that moment very much and I think after that I started to feel worse about helicopters.”
She said it was safe in the village, but they could hear some fighting and gunshots, especially at night.
“There were men who were meant to go out in the night in the village so if something happened they could inform people. My dad was out in the village at night and he said he could hear the fighting in the distance.”
Mariia stayed with her grandparents for three months before leaving for England with her mum in May 2022, while her dad and sister stayed in Ukraine.
Being a man, her dad, who is a trained electrician, was unable to leave the country in case he was needed to fight.
Mariia added: “It’s really worrying now because at this time in Ukraine, a lot of people are being called up even if they do not have the fighting experience, even from the start. That’s really scary. They are not having fun. It’s a really terrible time.”
She added: “I’m really glad for all the fighters who do it, but I don’t wish it for my dad. I love him too much. I cannot lose him.
“So many people have been lost – sons, brothers and dads – and I cannot imagine that happening to me.”
While Mariia’s mum was able to come over to England with her, she returned to Ukraine after three months, in August 2022.
Mariia did see her family again last summer, flying to Poland and then making her way to Ukraine by bus due to the no-fly zone.
The teenager has stayed with the same host family, Martin and Sylvia Moss, a retired doctor and dentist, at their home near Cockfield since she first came over, all arranged through the official scheme.
In praise for her hosts, Mariia said: “I cannot be any more happy than to say I’m so lucky to have them.
“Just sometimes I feel I cannot be that lucky, I didn’t do anything special in this life to have such nice people.”
She said Martin and Sylvia had helped her so much, from the very beginning to now, after a year-and-a-half in the UK.
Mariia has embraced her life here and has contributed to society through volunteering, for which she received a national award at the House of Lords.
She said her experiences of fleeing her country and starting a new life had made her more independent and mature.
“The year-and-a-half of me being here changed me a lot,” she said. “Back in Ukraine, I was in my last year of school and when I left I was just about to graduate and have my end of school exams and go to uni and then the war started and everything was messed up. No-one knew what to do or what was going to happen.
“When I was in Ukraine before the war, my life wasn’t colourful at all. It was just school, home, school, home.
“That was basically it and when I came over here and started college that changed me a lot as a personality. I do a lot of voluntary work and I just generally do a lot of different stuff now.”
The war has also altered Mariia’s mindset in terms of thinking about the future, as plans ‘can be broken’.
But of her hopes?
She wants ‘victory for Ukraine and for the war to stop’.
“My main hope is obviously victory for Ukraine as it deserves it. Looking at the history of Ukraine, you realise people went through so many things.”
She added: “I just don’t understand why people fight. They kill people and destroy cities...it hurts a lot.”
And if the war ends, she said she was happy to go back and help develop the country, but at the same time there were opportunities for her in England, too.
“Mariia will succeed at whatever she undertakes in life,” say her host family.
The words of Mariia’s host family, Martin and Sylvia Moss:
We had a sense of déjà vu when Russia invaded Ukraine. My wife Sylvia’s mother escaped from Latvia in 1945 and her grandfather had been taken and was never heard of again.
And so, it was an easy decision to welcome Mariia and her mother as guests in May 2022. It has been such a joy to have Mariia staying with us for the last 20 months. Little did we know that as we approached the age of 70 we would be host to a teenager again.
We have watched this bright, self-assured young lady come from the horrors of war in Ukraine to make the town of Bury and its people her adopted home. Mariia has made the most of every opportunity and has been generous-spirited to so many others in her volunteering.
All this and having to cope with STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) A-levels in a non-native language. It has been so gratifying, too, to see all those who have helped her along the way: local MP Jo Churchill who found Mariia in a heap by the roadside after her bike chain came off and duly transported her and her bike home in the back of her car; Hedingham and Chambers [bus operator] who were so generous to her when she started at Abbeygate Sixth Form College (SFC); the local churches; Abbeygate SFC who have given Mariia every opportunity to fulfil her potential through their pastoral care; our neighbours who have given her help and support – the list goes on.
We look forward to watching Mariia as she continues her studies and we echo the words of a neighbour who said of her: “Mariia will succeed at whatever she undertakes in life.”
We share in Mariia’s greatest desire, namely that Ukraine will once again be a free and safe homeland.