Refugee in Bordeaux, the Horpenchenko family hopes to find kyiv “as soon as possible”

Who could have predicted a year ago that Olena and her three children Danylo, Viktoriia and Anna would flee their country plagued by the horrors of war to settle more than 2,000 kilometers from her home in Gradignan, in the Bordeaux suburbs? ? No one. Like more than 119,000 of their compatriots, the Horpenchenkos chose France as their land of asylum. For more than eight months, this family has been trying to rebuild itself, to learn French and to plan ahead, far from Russian bombs and massacres.

Just a year ago, Olena Horpenchenko was a hairdresser in a prestigious salon in kyiv. “You had to wait days and days to get your hair cut at home,” confided Svitlana Poix, a volunteer from Bordeaux of Ukrainian origin who acted as a translator during the meeting between the family and 20 minutes. Olena, her husband Dmytro, her eldest son Danylo, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Tuesday, carrier of trisomy 21, and his daughters Viktoriia, 18 years old and Anna, 12 years old were “happy in kyiv”, shyly slips the youngest.

Viktoriia (left), Danylo and Anna (right) with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. – Olena Horpenchenko

In early December, as 100,000 Russian troops amassed on the Russian-Ukrainian border, the Americans sent 1,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Polish border, Europe trembled at the idea that Vladimir Putin might invade a democracy neighbor, the Horpenchenkos could not believe that a war could take place there. “With my three children, my very demanding job, I didn’t pay more attention to the news. And then, we did not believe that a democracy with dynamic growth could descend into chaos, “explains Olena.

A hasty departure under the bombs

On February 24, at 3:50 a.m., Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation”. It was the start of the war. From the first minutes of the conflict, bombs rained down on kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariouol, Dnipro, Odessa, Savayansk and Kramatorsk. “We were in our apartment on the 12th floor of a building north of kyiv. We saw the bombs falling on Irpin and Boutcha. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says the mother. But for the moment there is no question of leaving. Except that everything will change on March 2 for the small Ukrainian family. The children’s grandfather, who had taken refuge in his second home in Irpin, thinking he was safer than in kyiv, was killed during a bombardment. “We had however told him to leave”, breathes the mother.

So, following this family tragedy, we have to leave, as quickly and as far as possible. In her car, Olena barely has room for a few suitcases and her three children. On March 4, the four of them left the capital, leaving their lives behind, and the children’s father, Dmytro, was banned from leaving the country like all other men between the ages of 18 and 60.

But where to go? Like nearly eight million of their compatriots, the Horpenchenkos took to the roads of Europe. Originally, the little family wanted to go to Belgium, knowing a few people in Brussels. She therefore left for the south, passed through Moldavia, Romania, Hungary and stopped one day in Vienna. On the spot, she is helped and hosted by the family of an Orthodox priest. “There, we were put in contact with an association in Toulouse which took in Ukrainians but which also had infrastructures for the reception of young people like Danylo”, recalls Olena. So direction Toulouse, or more precisely Montauban.

France, land of welcome

It was therefore on March 11 that the Horpenchenkos and France met. Three months after staying with a Mautauban host family, the four Ukrainians finally moved near Bordeaux. In fact, Viktoriia, the 18-year-old youngest, freshly graduated from the Ukrainian baccalaureate – “with the mention TB” -, who practices fencing at a high level, was spotted by the Bordeaux university fencing club, the BEC. Training boldly to hope to one day join the Ukrainian Olympic team, and despite the lack of sponsors, she and her new club chained competition after competition for the world championship: the CIP in Paris, international events in Italy, Spain , Sweden, etc.

The rest of the family therefore followed Viktoriia and invested in social housing in Gradignan, after a short stay with a host family. Here, Danylo, nicknamed Danya by those close to him, fits into professional life. However, due to the low number of structures adapted to young people with Down syndrome, the ESAT (Establishment and service of assistance through work) the young man is forced to take two hours of public transport daily to get to his place of work in Sadirac. “Not easy with his condition, it tires him a lot”, slips his mother. “And they don’t get much help!” “, annoys Svitlana, the volunteer who accompanies them, “the basic procedures are very complicated so imagine in a language that you do not understand. He is sorely lacking in solid social support. For example, it was I who taught them that Danylo was eligible for the Disabled Adult Allowance. »

The portrait of the Horpenchenko family at Christmas in 2021 in kyiv, a few weeks before the start of the war.  From left to right, Dmytro, the father, Anna, the youngest, Viktoriia, the youngest, Olena, the mother and Danylo the eldest.
The portrait of the Horpenchenko family at Christmas in 2021 in kyiv, a few weeks before the start of the war. From left to right, Dmytro, the father, Anna, the youngest, Viktoriia, the youngest, Olena, the mother and Danylo the eldest. – Olena Horpenchenko

The mother, in order to resume her activity as a hairdresser, is currently taking French lessons. As for the youngest Anna, she goes to college, where according to her relatives, integration is going quite well. The youngest was the only one to speak a little French when she arrived in Gradignan: she was taking French lessons in kyiv.

A family separated by force of circumstance

And the dad? What about? Dmytro, after the death of his father, chose to take care of his mother. Remaining in Ukraine, he has also been unemployed since the beginning of the conflict. “He was a taxi, but to flee, we had to take his taxi,” explains Olena, before adding: “Even today, north of kyiv, the bombardments continue. We constantly fear for Dmytro’s life. »

And for almost a year, the family has not had the opportunity to be reunited. Unlike 10,000 displaced Ukrainians, as the figure of the French Office for Immigration and Integration, the Horpenchenkos do not plan to return to Ukraine as long as the conflict lasts. All of them, however, hope to resume the course of their lives in kyiv “as soon as possible”. And Olena concludes: “However, we cannot project ourselves, as the conflict seems to settle over time. I just hope I’m not on the street with my three children. »

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