He has left the woman in the Czech Republic so far, but is returning to Ukraine himself. Pensioner Viktor misses the cottage iROZHLAS
Ukrainians are returning home from the Czech Republic. There aren’t many of them, but they are. You can see this at the Prague Florenc bus station, from where there are daily buses to Kiev, Lviv or Odessa. A 68-year-old pensioner Viktor, who spent two months in the Czech Republic, also got on one of the buses to Kiev. However, he still leaves his wife and grandson in Liběchov near Mělník.
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Viktor and Valentina sit at a table in a small kitchen with deliberately old-fashioned furniture, and they finish their last lunch together. On the floor of the First Republic villa, they had two rooms, which they shared with their grandson Jehor.
Valentina cooked borscht, gets up from the table and goes to wash the dishes. “I am afraid to return because of the war. It’s safe here and I’m afraid of chemical weapons. The Russians can invent a provocation, there is talk of nuclear weapons, Putin can do anything. I’ll wait. “
Listen to a report on the return of the population to Ukraine
Viktor is impatient, impatient, he does not look, he misses the cottage and the fish. He is a pensioner, but he worked on the dam of the Kiev dam. He bought a ticket for the Prague Kyiv bus two days in advance.
“They had the last three tickets,” he says in the garden of a villa in Liběchovice, inspecting four pieces of luggage and lighting a Ukrainian cigarette. He just had the last package left. “I need to fix the scooter, clean the garden, plant vegetables and I’m looking forward to the sauna, I want to evaporate properly,” he smiles at the thought of his “dacha”. “Neighbor Vít will come, we will discuss a lot of things. He wrote that electricity works, as well as gas. “
In Liběchov, the family lives with a Middle East expert from the Prague Metropolitan University, Břetislav Tureček. He noticed Viktor’s impatience when the Ukrainian army liberated the Kiev region and forced the Russians to retreat. “I’ve been feeling Viktor’s departure for a few weeks now. He could be seen coming to life and talking about returning. “
Viktor and Valentina have an apartment in a block of flats in the town of Vyšgorod, which is a northern suburb of Kiev, about twenty kilometers as the crow flies from Buchi and Irpin. The Russians did not enter their village, but the war can still be heard. “In the surrounding villages, engineers demine houses, roads, forests. Neighbors say they hear explosions every day. That’s terrible, “says Valentina, wiping away her tears and thanking Břetislav. “He received us so beautifully, I feel at home.”
Homecoming
Several hundred thousand people have returned to the Kiev region since the liberation, but mostly from western Ukraine. The city is reviving, but there are still a number of restrictions and the Russian army is firing rockets at the city.
David Stulík, an analyst at the European Values think tank, who has lived in Kiev for more than ten years, is also watching the return of the Ukrainians. “Dozens of my friends and acquaintances have left Prague for their last days in Kiev. They are mostly women who work for an international company, in large companies and have remorse that they are doing well here and are still going on in Ukraine. They feel that they are more needed there and I know that, for example, they are involved in cleaning the city, they help as volunteers and so on. “
According to data on mobile phone users, the population of the Ukrainian capital fell in March during the Battle of Kyiv from 3.5 million to just 1 million. That number has now risen to more than 2.2 million as thousands of Kievans return to the city every day
19:07 – 16 May 2022
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Stulík also knows of a woman who went alone to Nikolaev, whom she is fighting for. “A friend also returned to Odessa with a small child.”
The Czech authorities register Ukrainians who arrive, request temporary protection and a visa for more than 90 days in order to endure. More than 342 people applied for such a special visa. However, the Ministry of the Interior states that there are about 200,000 of them living in the Czech Republic.
According to Adam Rözler, it is not possible to find out where he is leaving and how many he has left. “Due to the fact that the Czech Republic is not located at the external borders of the European Union, it is not possible to record the return of refugees to Ukraine.” “Temporary protection does not end when a foreigner leaves the territory of the Czech Republic.”
Termination of temporary protection
Citizens of Ukraine may request the termination of temporary protection when leaving the Czech Republic. Either send a written statement with a certified official letter, or come in person, stand in line at the counter and check out. Analyst Stulík does not know anyone who would complete it. “They don’t even know it, and they don’t really need it. They don’t get any benefits, so they don’t deal with it. “
Like Viktor did on the way to Kiev. He put on a T-shirt and sweatpants to make his travels comfortable, put a blue passport in his pocket, bought a bus ticket for 2,500 crowns, drove to the Florenc bus station and did nothing more. But he agreed with the landlord. “I have an invitation to a ‘dacha’, so I hope that in time I will get there and go to the sauna,” he says. Břetislav Tureček.
Viktor looks around his fellow passengers, lights another cigarette, and according to the timetable, a 22-hour ride awaits him. He will probably see his wife and grandson on vacation. “I think Valentina will be happy, the Russians will not invade Kyiv again, my grandson will finish the year and come to me.”
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