Olga Evtuh was among the early refugees – or internally displaced persons – in Russia’s war against Ukraine. She fled the armed conflict in Donetsk Oblast’s Sloviansk in June, about two months after Russian-backed insurgents invaded the city of 120,000 people. Even though Ukrainian armed forces liberated her city on July 5, she doesn’t want to go back home.
With her son Roman, 6, Evtuh now lives in Philadelphia Church in Kyiv, which now serves as a point of humanitarian aid for others displaced by war. Working as a volunteer in the center of mutual assistance called Save Ukraine, Evtuh daily receives dozens of calls from other displaced residents of eastern Ukraine. She helps to coordinate temporary dwellings for them or offers assistance in evacuation from still-dangerous eastern cities.
In June, she was in the same desperate position- after the devastating shelling in Sloviansk, Evtuh was forced to ask for shelter. Save Ukraine was the first to rescue them from staying at the Kharkiv railway station.
“I couldn’t believe it would ever happen to us. Everything I had back home – my job, a private house, friends – had to be left behind,” she said. She recalls that the furniture firm where she and her brother worked for five years came under attack. On June 8, it burnt to ashes after massive shelling.
While no one was injured, the business that employed 350 people – and all of its inventory – were lost. She believes the attack was deliberate because most employees of the furniture firm took a pro-Ukraine position.
But her decision to flee Sloviansk came after she learned that four of her friends, Christian Protestants, were killed by militants of the Donetsk People’s Republic. She believes they were killed for religious reasons. “As a Christian believer I couldn’t endure persecution for religious affiliation. This is one of the main reasons I refuse to return home,” she says.
Evtuh also wants to escape the hate of pro-Russian inhabitants of Sloviansk.
“It’s hard when you know the neighbors are ready to shove a knife into your back just because you think differently,” she says. “It was dangerous to display your Ukrainian nature while there’s an accumulation of intolerance around. I don’t want to raise Roman in such atmosphere.”
She may eventually return, but for now she is volunteering at Save Ukraine.
Whether she returns or not, Evtuh won’t give upon her Ukrainian position. Because of that, Evtuh finds it hard to talk to her father, a booster of the Kremlin-backed separatists and Russia.
“The war created tension in our relations, as well as with other relatives. This is the hardest – to see normal people you shared your life with believing total lies and the false ideas.” She is, however, proud of her mother – a pro-Ukrainian who held her ground and refuses to flee Sloviansk.
Evtuh is impressed with Kyivans. She came with no money but was welcomed by strangers.
“A volunteer brought us to a clean place with beds, provided food packages and was so hospitable. I was shocked when Kyivans continued to bring clothes and food to the unknown refugees they were supposed to hate,” she says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Iryna Matviyishyn can be reached at [email protected].
