“I’m ready to live in a ward – as long as it’s not Russia”
According to the UN, Ukraine, where cases of infection have continued for the ninth day, during this time more than a million people have entered. But they emigrate and love Russia. After Moscow’s recognition of the sovereignty of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR and the invasion of Ukraine, dozens of messages a day become emotional in Facebook groups like “It’s time to leave”. The most common questions are: where can I go quickly and what do I need to take with me. Tickets to visa-free Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and the United Arab Emirates have risen in price several times over the Swiss week. Euronews spoke to Russians who discovered the decision to liberate them from their homeland, sometimes in just a few hours. Hero names have been changed.
Oksana, 25, left with her husband for France:
“The war found us in Russia. My husband is Ukrainian, and I am a Russian citizen. We did not decide to leave immediately, after two or three days, because we could not cross paths everywhere. Where will we live? for what? how to leave?
Housing appeared literally the next morning. A friend from Paris wrote to us and offered to stay with him for the time being. We pointed out: “And how long can we stay with you so as not to strain anyone?” He replied, “As long as you need” (trans. “as long as you need”). We agreed.
The next question was: how to leave? We travel a lot and we know how to lay a route with loss retention. But now the minimum losses, unfortunately, did not work out. All tickets are bought on the go, and everything turns out to be quite expensive. We went from Volgograd through St. Petersburg with an average transfer.
At the border, my woman had problems. Interrogation by an FSB officer in full-time. He was asked very tricky questions. To me, as to a Russian woman, they also had questions: why, where am I going and for what purpose. I don’t want to cancel it.
Return to Russia? We don’t know when or if we will. I have a remote job in the Russian office, while I plan to stay there. The husband lost his job. We had small savings while we live. Let’s see further.”
Ilya, 35, bought tickets to Georgia:
“I was born in Moscow and have lived here all my life. I am an IT specialist, an engineer, I work remotely with America. Then I was preparing to leave before the pandemic, quarantine quarantine and it was not possible to leave. When the bombing of Ukraine began, I realized that I had to abandon this country and bought tickets to Georgia. Let’s work on the new earth. I am also going to take my parents out of the country. All Russian details, e-mail, phones – everything changes to another country. The point is that a residence permit will be registered. I am ready to live in a ward, as long as it is not Russia.”
Sofia, 19 years old, left for Turkey with her fiancé, is going to Serbia:
“We left for Istanbul on March 2, 2022. Tickets were bought on Saturday (February 27) in the evening, boxes were collected on Sunday and Monday. We decided not to rent an apartment in Moscow yet, we will pay for one more month. While our friends live there, but we have collected all the things and assume that if we still do not enter Russia, they will have the opportunity to send them to another city.
I am a student studying to be a journalist after all. We assume that then I will finish my studies, and we will move to another country. Consideration of America and Europe. When it became clear that everything was absolutely bad … We thought about buying tickets right on the same morning when our wonderful president said that a “special operation” was starting. We thought it was crazy. We exchanged currency, withdrew part of the money from an ATM and thought that we need to watch the measures a little. Watched for two days and on Saturday decided to buy tickets in Istanbul. Then they did not cost big money yet: one ticket with luggage cost 12 thousand rubles one way.
We had been saving money for a long time to move to America, so we had some savings. We exchanged them for currency, and now they belong to cash currency. This is enough for two or three months. Fortunately, my boyfriend’s company paid for all the flights and reimbursed the cost of the accommodation. We took a survey for the first two weeks and now we are looking at apartments for another month.
We plan to stay in Istanbul for the time being, but we would like to move further to Serbia and from there make plans in America. We are now completely safe with all parties, which is amazing, and we are endlessly happy.”
Ekaterina, 36, left with her family for Poland:
“I am a citizen of Ukraine, Russia, my husband is a citizen, we have a little daughter. She is a year and three months old. in Poland, in the city of Szczecin.
On February 28, we left Moscow at night in a private car. In the afternoon we decided that we needed to leave, there was simply nothing more to wait. For three or four hours, I collected the most necessary things that fit in the car: clothes, children’s toys, some food, documents, computers. My daughter and I did not have Schengen visas, only foreign passports, but my husband, emotionally stressed at the border point in Estonia, described the situation to them. We were told to come and we were empty – they would issue some documents at the border.
On March 1, we were at the border with Estonia. On the border territory of Russia, when leaving, we were asked a lot of questions. We were very surprised how we are going to get to Estonia without increasing the visa. For a long time they called someone up, but in the end, investigations about the birth were discovered and investigations about marriage were discovered with a seal of departure. On the Estonian side, we represented the whole situation. We were given all the forms for visas, photographed us. We spent about four hours there. During this time, my daughter and I were issued Schengen visas for 15 days.
How are you going to build your life? My husband is an IT specialist, works as a software tester. I am a financier. I think that I need to relearn, but we are ready for this, ready to learn the language, because we have a little daughter. Probably, everything is done for the sake of her future, I don’t want her to live in “North Korea”.
The worst case was that most of our acquaintances, friends and relatives, unfortunately, told this news. They watch Russian television and believe every word.
Alexander, aged 28, left with his wife for Turkey:
“Absolutely not identifying the investigator and feeling ashamed for such actions. It’s scary to leave, to leave a bunch of things, work. But the prospect of staying is even scarier. Well, I don’t like the principle: either support or be silent. Otherwise prison.
They generally thought about moving, finished it, but later and gradually. But so shocking that you need to run.
We would like to go to Europe. Been there many times and the culture was closer. But it was not possible to make a visual wife. Comes looking for quick options. The most suitable is Turkey, although the way of life there is different from ours: different food, culture. But there is no way out.
Tickets are very expensive. More than twice the average salary. We found a way out: we bought a tour with a charter flight. It came out cheaper – $ 500. For the first week there is a hotel, which is included in the tour. Next, we think we will find Airbnb, or through the placement of realtors. And we will find a job, remote.