Ukrainian refugees speak of relief to get temporary homes in Millstreet

Interior designer Vera Ruban and her mother-in-law Hanna Veselska from Gostomel, Kyiv, are relieved to be safe in the Green Glens Arena, Millstreet, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Vera Ruban always knew the day would come when she would have to flee Ukraine.

And while the 31-year-old interior designer is currently safe in Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Co Cork, she is convinced Ukraine will win the war and she will get to return to her native land.

Before fleeing, Vera and her husband Artem endured night after night of bomb attacks and air raids in and around their apartment in the city of Hostomel, northwest of Kyiv.

Caroline Brelyan and her brother Kirill and their dog Liticia who had just arrived in Millstreet, Co Cork from Ukraine yesterday. Picture: Dan Linehan

“You could see the jets overhead all the time and bombs going off, and you could see fighting between our army and the Russians and some Chechnya forces,” she said.

“I honestly thought that things would get better, but they just got worse, and before we decided to leave, we packed a rucksack and filled it with essentials like medicines, documents, and toiletries.

"When the time came, I grabbed the bag, shoved some more clothes in and then just ran down the stairs and jumped into the car."

She and her 48-year-old mother-in-law, Hanna Veselska, along with their two ginger cats, were driven by Artem to an area west of Ukraine near the border, and from there they took a bus to Warsaw.

Julia and Marina Timofeeva with Alona Lyudmila Hassieieva at the Green Glens Arena, Millstreet, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

After a flight aboard KLM that took them to Dublin Airport via Amsterdam, Vera and Hanna finally arrived at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet on Wednesday night as part of a group of around 70 refugees.

“It is lovely,” said Vera, who had to previously flee her native home in the Donbas region when fighting between Russian separatists and the Ukraine army started in 2014.

“You have no idea how very grateful we are for what you have done for us. I don’t know how long myself and my mother-in-law will be here, but while we are, we want to work and pay our way and not just sit around in your Irish hospitality.”

Vera says she hopes to get a job working with horses or as an interpreter, while her mother-in-law would be happy to work as a cook.

As to the future, she has no doubt in her mind about how the war will end.

“We will win, and of this I am certain,” she said.

However, where she will live when the war ends is playing on her mind.

Lyudmila Mysenko with her mother Tatyna and children Peter, Julia, and Stanislav, heading back to their accommodation in the Green Glens Arena, Millstreet, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Shortly after she fled, Russian soldiers bombed her home and then took over flats that were not damaged to use them as lodgings.

She has seen a neighbour’s video showing the flat ransacked and the front door wrenched off its hinges.

“The whole thing is just surreal,” she said.

“I still cannot believe what is happening and what that man — Putin — is doing to my country.”

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said ministers have been ordered to examine ways of paying those who make properties available for use.

Mr Martin said he has asked Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys to examine the issue.

“I spoke to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Social Protection in particular, to look at various options,” he said.

“There are issues that would have to be sorted out, but in the first instance, what needs to happen is those who have pledged (accommodation) we need to get through that process, perhaps more quickly - it’s more time consuming on all involved,” he said.

To date, just 159 Ukrainian refugees have been moved into housing pledged by members of the public.

Mr Martin ruled out any suggestion of capping the number of refugees Ireland will take, notwithstanding the warnings of a lack of accommodation across the country.

“We are not looking at that right now, but it’s going to be very challenging, and we’ll see how this pans out,” he said.

Asked if he would rule out putting a cap on arrivals, he then said that was not under consideration “at all”.

“We’re looking at looking after people as they come into the country. But it means new options and different options, given that we’ve exhausted a lot of facilities already, but we’re consistently working at expanding our capacities.”

He said the Government is examining what can be constructed to accommodate refugees, but also what buildings could be reconfigured to make them suitable - and that this issue was being examined by a group of former local authority public servants working under the aegis of Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.