'The Blackwater is full of my tears': Mother and daughter face an emotional return home to Ukraine

A Ukrainian mother and daughter, Yulia and Violetta Kit, who have lived for a year in Cork, have spoken of their mixed emotions at moving back to Kyiv.

The return home happens just days after 17-year-old Violetta completed her Leaving Cert exams.

“I have cried so much this week, I feel the Blackwater is full of my tears,” said Yulia, wiping her eyes and pointing to the river across from the Grand Hotel, in Fermoy, where she has been living.

“I want to go home to Ukraine, but I don’t want to leave my friends in Ireland, and because I am hopeful for the future but I am afraid too.”

Yulia, aged 38, came to Ireland with Violetta last July, leaving their their home in Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv.

Now, despite the danger, they are returning to Brovary.

Before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, Yulia was a successful businesswoman who owned two wedding salons, but when the war began, she and Violetta felt they had no choice but to flee.

Yulia’s husband, Volodymyr, an architect in their old life, stayed behind as a volunteer, helping Ukrainian refugees across the border to Poland and arranging s for them abroad.

In Fermoy, Yulia and Violetta settled slowly into their new home in the former Grand Parade Hotel, in Fermoy, where 25 Ukrainian people, including five children, live.

Yulia took on work as a cleaner, and Violetta began her Leaving Certificate studies at Loreto Secondary School, with hopes of going on to study business in UCC.

Although they adapted to their new life in Ireland, they yearned all the time for home, with Yulia wanting to be with her husband and Violetta missing her dad.

Last Christmas, they both put aside the danger of a three-day each-way journey home and surprised Volodymyr by flying to Poznań and taking a bus the rest of the way.

That visit, where they saw Kyiv Christmas trees powered by cyclists on stationary bicycles, only served to make them all the more homesick, and although Volodymyr felt they would be safer in Fermoy, Yulia and Violetta both made the decision to eventually return home to what remains a war zone.

On Friday, Violetta completed her final exam in the Leaving Cert. She said she was not scared to be going home, and she ired the bravery of her fellow citizens in continuing the routine of daily life, even under the threat of war.

“They live like normal lives, though sometimes it can be scary, but I am not afraid, but my mom, maybe she is a little scared.”

She said she would miss her classmates in Loreto, and her teachers, and she would always them. In the future, she added, she might yet return to Ireland, perhaps to study in UCC.

This afternoon they will get a bus to Dublin Airport, and from there they will fly to Kraków and then by bus to Lviv, where Volodymyr will meet them.

“All the time I want to live with my family, in my house, in my city, but we lived in Fermoy for one year, and all of our friends in Fermoy will always be in our hearts.

“In Fermoy I have very many friends, and that is very sad for me, but I will be very happy to be home with my family too and I hope we can be safe.”

Some day, Yulia said, “We will come back to Fermoy, because a piece of our hearts will always be here.”