Sisters Lera and Masha Kostorna are wrapped in a yellow blanket. Paint is peeling off a damp wall behind them.
The sisters are minding each other, holding and hugging tight, sitting on a cold floor, in a bomb shelter in Kharkiv in northern Ukraine.
They are singing loudly over music blaring from a small speaker on a phone because they want to drown out the noise of the shelling and bombing outside.
The girls are singing that they’re afraid, they cannot sleep and they are asking adults to make the horror of the war in Ukraine stop.
That snapshot of fear in the Kharkiv bunker was recorded on Lera and Masha’s mother’s phone in March 2022.
Today, they are again watching the video on the same phone in the safety of their new home in Ballybunion with their mother Inna.
Lera, nine, said that herself and Masha, aged five, feel safe now because there are no bombs and rockets. They can also go to school.
“Yeah, I’m happy, very happy,” Lera tells me, as I record the interview on a small television camera.
“Here there are no bombs and rockets,” she adds with a smile.
Her sister Masha agrees, but only with a nod. She is shy and not prepared to talk to a journalist.
“It’s very good here in Ireland because my children are safe”
Their mother, Inna, is thankful for their new home in Ballybunion. The small home houses the family in the seaside town.
More importantly, Inna said, her girls are safe and sleep more soundly at night – free from anxiety imposed by the war’s danger and destruction – shelling, explosions and bombing. They do not miss that about Kharkiv.
“It’s very good here in Ireland because my children are safe. In Ireland they began to sleep normally,” Inna said.
However the horrors of the war have not disappeared since the family arrived in Ireland over a year-and-a-half ago.
Their home in Kharkiv was destroyed in recent weeks.
“Our life will never be the same. It was hit by a missile. The doors, roof and window are gone, destroyed. It’s very difficult and painful for us,” said Inna.
She sadly adds her neighbours died in the attack like many others throughout the course of the war.
Inna has other worries. Her brother fights on the front line.
“Several times he was wounded and I am worried about him,” she said.
Two years on from the start of the war Inna stresses “it is not easy”.
She would like to return home but cannot because there is nothing left and it is not safe.
“It’s very difficult. Our city is like ruins. I really want to return home, but it is impossible because there is no housing, no schools, no friends, no neighbours. I feel frustrated. It’s frustrating. This upsets me very much that I can’t return to home,” Inna added.
The Government has estimated that of the 105,000 Ukrainians who have gotten PPS numbers here since the start of the war, about 25,000 have left the country.
Another woman Kateryna, who lived in Ballybunion for over a year with her children, travelled back to her home in Chernihiv in December.
She travelled home because her mother was sick and she felt her own daughter was ‘forgetting’ her father.
“I understand that the war is not over and I’m afraid for my children. I don’t feel safe now in Ukraine” said Kateryna on a Zoom call.
She adds her morning was spent in a bomb shelter.
“We ran to the shelter,” she said.
“It’s sad sometimes. I’m very scared. If I am alone, I can cry. My life has changed. I tell my children every day how much I love them,” Kateryna said.
Both women say Ireland is welcoming and people are helpful.
“It is not our choice”
That remains the case today Inna said.
“People, they are kind. If you contact them, they will always help. I’m very grateful. My children are safe. It’s very important for me.”
Asked if the mood in Ireland to immigrants has changed since she arrived she replies ‘no’ and emphasises it is a difficult question to answer.
Asked about anti-immigration protests, she said that she would like to tell them one thing:
“It is not our choice” she said, agreeing it was not her choice to leave Ukraine. It was forced upon her.
A friend of Inna’s agrees.
Jackie Landers, CEO of the North Kerry Family Resource Centre, said Ukrainian families are not comfortable talking about this.
“The Ukrainian community we have mainly in north Kerry really want to show their appreciation to the Irish people, to the people of Kerry, and I suppose, looking at the news and reading the newspapers, they’re just a little bit concerned, maybe that welcome might reduce.
“But in north Kerry, I don’t believe that it has. I think it’s as strong as ever here in our community,” said Jackie Landers, who is also chair of the National Forum of Family Resource Centres.
