STORY: O-TON OLENA VANSOVYCH, REFUGEE FROM KHARKIV: “My name is Olena Vansovych. I come from Ukraine, from Kharkiv. I’ve been here for a year.” A little embarrassed, but in a good mood. Even if not everything is perfect for the Ukrainian one year after the Russian invasion of her homeland. The Kharkiv Panthers hockey player uses every opportunity to stay in shape, even if it’s just in the garage of an office building. She recently described her everyday life in Munich: O-TON OLENA VANSOVYCH, REFUGEE FROM CHARKIW (IN ENGLISH): “We go to German lessons and have found a hockey team for us and our children. Now we’re learning German and playing ice hockey. The children have their championship and we have a different championship.” At the beginning of March 2022, she fled from the Russian attacks on Kharkiv with other teammates, two girls, a small boy and an over 80-year-old woman. The start-up company Wirelane in Munich offered the 15 refugees their own offices as accommodation. So they’ve been living here for about a year. O-TON OLENA VANSOVYCH, REFUGEE FROM KHARKIV (IN ENGLISH): “It is difficult to plan something. On February 23rd, we couldn’t have imagined that we would ever wake up in such a situation. We don’t have any specific plans for the future yet. But I want to finish the German course and then maybe find a job.” So the plans are initially in Munich. But in their minds they are always connected to their homeland because their fathers, brothers and husbands fight at the front there. Not an easy fate. Like so many stories of people whose lives were turned upside down by the Russian invasion a year ago. However, you are still alive.