Misha, Masha and Nina

Misha, Masha and Nina are standing in a train station in Uzhhorod, a small town at the border with Slovakia. They have tried to cross the border twice. But now they are going back to their home town on the Dniper river, Cherkasy, half way between Kyiv and Dnipro.

Misha, Masha and Nina in happier times 

 

 

 

The thing is: Misha turned 18 years in January – one month before the war started. In the eyes of the Ukrainian border guards he is a fighter, who can be trained to handle weapons and to kill. He is forbidden to leave Ukraine, like all men aged 18 to 60. In his mother‘s eyes, he is a child - an exceptionally bright one for that: he‘s got a stipend to the best university in Ukraine and represented Ukraine in the Eurovision song contest for schools with his sister Masha.

The other thing is: Nina and her 15-year old daughter Masha are free to go. They can walk across the border to Slovakia. Their bags will probably be carried by sympathetic border guards. Volunteers will give them water, food and coffee or tea . The European Union will admit them in an instance. Buses will take them to whichever country they choose. Probably Germany, as Masha has been taught German in school. Before the war, that was. School has been closed ever since. 

 

So Nina, Mascha and Mischa faced an impossible choice: split up – or face war together.

 

„When the police stopped us at the border with Slovakia and Hungary and said they could take Masha to the other side, we all cried. But then we calmed down and decided to stay together. I don't think it's safe for my daughter to be in a foreign country with a foreign language with a foreign woman and her children.“

The childrens‘ father lives in Slovakia. He has a new wife, a new life and new children. But Nina and the father are estranged. Nina doesn‘t trust him. Masha also was not willing to go to live with him. She, too, wanted to stay. From the train station in Uzhhorod, they set off for what would be a 14 hour journey back to their hometown of Cherkasy. But Nina was troubled by their decision. 

"If God forbid something happens, how can I forgive myself and who will forgive me? Am I crazy? I wondered all the way home“ 

Nina, Masha, and Misha are now in Cherkasy. They had given their own flat to refugees when they left, so they stay with their Babushka. Nina is looking for a job. Before the war, she sold fabric to fashion factories. But those manufacture for the army now. Masha has online classes, but with most classmates and teachers abroad, this is problem-ridden. Misha‘s university in Kyiv is closed, so he has nothing to do. He‘s watching soap operas, news and making a lot of pancakes to soothe his nerves.