When the war started, I was seven months pregnant with my baby girl. My world fell apart. In Ukraine, houses became ruins, the roads were abandoned and people ran desperate to save their lives. I chose Romania, where my brother had left years before, fleeing a war that for many had already started in 2014.
I am Marina Iliuc, a Romanian from Northern Bucovina in Ukraine, and I carry in my soul the story of a war that stole our peace, but not our hope. I am here today not to just tell you my story, but to talk about the strength of some people who were forced to leave their lives behind.
What does it mean to live in daily fear of losing your home, family, life? I was a teacher in Ukraine and I had students who, on the first day of school, would confess to me that "My father died in the war." How can you explain to a 6-7 year old that life must go on when he has just lost his hero?
Our men - brothers, fathers, husbands - are sent straight to the front. Women have no choice but to run to save themselves, to save their lives and their children`s lives. They leave from homes with nothing but the hope of finding a safe place. Arrived in a new country, without knowing the language, without friends or relatives, they face a silent battle but equally hard.
I find it hard to be looked at as a refugee. People say we are everywhere, that we come and we keep coming. But what would you do in our place, if every morning, when you open your eyes, you see only sadness and pain? What if you lived in fear that maybe tomorrow you will not wake up? What if every day began with the question, "Which direction will the next missile come from?"
Therefore I came to Romania. And all these years I have been volunteering, sending aid to soldiers and refugees, trying to give a little bit of the warmth of a home to those who have lost everything. Because when you see mothers with children who have spent months on end in basements without food, without water, listening to explosions, you realize how fragile life is.
In the fall of 2022, I was invited by Rădăuțiul Civic to teach Romanian language to the refugees in the camp. How can you learn a new language when your mind is stuck in the trauma of war? But we didn't give up. Together, we worked on how they could manage the emotions and struggles in their minds, organized workshops, offered counseling, looked for housing, jobs, schools for their children.
Sometimes in the middle of lessons, women would burst into tears, saying, "My husband was killed by the Russians."
"I lost everything I had.
"I don't know if I will ever see my home again."
What they said became a lesson for me, even though I was the teacher. I learned about the power of the human soul, about survival, about hope. If in the past I would rush out the door without hugging my family, today I've learned to turn around whenever it is need because I don't know if I'll catch another "I love you" when I come back.
Because within the Rădăuțiul Civic Association, I have heard hundreds of painful stories.
Some I've brought to you.
Jenia - Seven months ago, I lost my husband in the battlefield where he fought for two years. I was left alone with my daughter. Before, I used to work as a deputy manager in a big company in Kharkov. Today I'm just trying to survive.
Liuba - I'm from Lugansk, the city of Avdiivka where the war started in 2014. My husband was shot by the Russians. I was an economist at a factory building the biggest bridges in Ukraine. Now I have nothing. The house is in ruins.
Iulia - I fled the war in Lugansk in 2014 and lived in Kiev for ten years, then came to Romania. Here I feel like I live in a corner of heaven. But back home in Lugansk, my grandparents died while I was nowhere near. I couldn't even go to their funeral.
Gherman - I'm a surgeon from Cernăuți. I left everything behind to be with my family. In Romania, I was told: "Crazy Ukrainian, go and fight for your country!" But I had a one-month-old baby in my arms. How could I leave him?
Ion - I'm from Cernăuți. My home is only 40 kilometers from here, but I can't live and enjoy myself in it. I have two children and I have to live for them. We live in a rental.
Victoria, Olena and Tatiana - We are three retired women with nowhere to go back to. Our houses are destroyed. At our age, how can we start from zero? The son is at war.
Since the beginning of the war, Romania has been one of the countries providing support to refugees from Ukraine through programs for rent help, counseling, financial and psychological assistance. However, many of these programs have ended, leaving only psychological support and integration activities. Despite these, among many Romanians, the idea that "Ukrainians live on our money" has emerged. A perception that often does not reflect reality. Sure, there have been programs where the rent has been subsidized by the state.
Today, most Ukrainian families who remained in Romania no longer benefit from financial support. They pay rent, utilities, food, medical tests and medicines - just like any Romanian citizen.
It is important to understand what they have been through, but also what these people are going through. Many have lost everything: homes, jobs, the security of a future. They did not leave of their own free will, but were forced by circumstances.
Now, they are trying to rebuild their lives, to work, to integrate and to live a normal existence in a country that at first welcomed them with open arms, but gradually began to look at them with distrust.
Instead of letting ourselves be guided by prejudices, perhaps we should ask ourselves a simple question: If it were us in their shoes, forced to leave our homes and our dreams, the work we have labored for, and run for our lives, how would we want to be treated?
