Ukrainian Anastasia Kyshmar touched down in Dublin Airport on 3rd March but it is impossible for her stop thinking about her home country in its hour of greatest peril: 

“To be honest, it’s so hard,” she told The Hard Shoulder.

“I still have a lot of my family and a lot of my friends there [in Ukraine] and a lot of them are protecting our country right now. 

“A lot of them are dying and I love them. 

“It breaks my heart to see it and… whenever I see the news right now it really makes me emotional. It makes me cry. I just wish I could help myself. 

“Like I’m so grateful that Ireland has taken us and I’m so grateful that we can stay in a safe place but then I just feel like I’m being left out and I feel ashamed that I am alive for some reason - if it makes any sense.” 

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The invasion has robbed Ukrainians of normality and joy in every single aspect of their lives. But for Anastasia, it deprived her of a uniquely special moment in her life - her wedding day. 

“I was in Kyiv on 24th February with my almost husband - we were supposed to be married on 25th February,” Anastasia recalled. 

“On the 25th we left - the worst day I guess in my life right now - because at 4am there was an airplane that fell right next to us and we ran away from it. 

“The experience is just… I can’t really tell you how horrible it was.” 

People arrive at the border crossing between Poland and Ukraine on February 26th, 2022. Picture by: REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo/JAKUB STEZYCKI

The couple travelled to their hometown of Odessa and then made it into neighbouring Moldova; after a brief stop off in Romania, they arrived in Dublin after picking Ireland because they speak the language. 

“I want to be a working member of society,” Anastasia explained. 

“I don’t want to be a burden to anyone. I don’t want to stay as a refugee and learn another language for three to five years and go through that whole process when I can… work, I can be a lot of help.”

Main image: Refugees board the train to Berlin at the Przemysl train station near the Ukrainian-Polish border in the morning. Picture by: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Alamy Live News