‘All We Want Is to Live in Peace’

Ukrainian mother and daughter Svitl­ana Perep­elytsya and Al­ex­andra Andru­sen­ko were able to flee to Iceland from their war-torn country, along with Alexandra’s three children, since they have relatives in Iceland. Al­ex­andra’s husband remains in Ukraine.

He remains there, taking care of the family members who are still in Ukraine, Alexandra states, talking to mbl.is ’ reporter at her sister-in-law’s home in Reykjavík. Svitlana and Al­ex­andra arrived there yesterday after a long journey from the town Irpen, about 30 km west of the capital, Kyiv.

Al­ex­andra states she can’t think about how hard it was to leave her husband in Ukraine. You cannot think about one person, she remarks, but must think about everyone. Some of her friends and family were able to leave Kyiv, while others couldn’t, since it was too dangerous.

Their journey began Thursday morning a week ago, when Russia’s invasion began.

Alexandra states that her ex-husband called her to tell her a war had started and she’d have to bring herself and the children to safety right away. They spent the first night in a village south of the city, with Alexandra’s parents. People didn’t believe a war had started, Al­ex­andra states. They thought there would be a few bombs and that would be it.

On Friday, they drove for 12 hours 300 km (190 mi) westward toward the Slovakian border. On Saturday, they drove for 17 hours a distance of 500 km (310 mi) and made it to a town near the border. On Sunday, they took a bus across the border to Slovakia, and even though the distance was only a few kilometers, the trip took 12 hours, since the crowd at the border was huge. People arrive there by car, on foot and by bus, Al­ex­andra relates. Close to a million people have fled Ukraine by now.

Al­ex­andra states that a relative in Italy met them in Slovakia and drove them to Hungary on Monday, from where they flew to Iceland on Tuesday. Their plan was to fly to Egilsstaðir, East Iceland, yesterday afternoon.

I’m completely sleepless after the journey, Al­ex­andra states. Every time I wake up after dozing off, I wonder whether this was a bad dream. She begins every day by sending messages to her friends and family, asking if they’re alive.

She states that Ukrainians are determined not to hand their country over to another nation. “We don’t want to be part of Russia. Ukraine is an independent country,” she remarks. She is convinced that Ukrainians will win the war.

She hopes to be able to return home one day, but points out that repairing the damage done by Russians will take a long time, including her home, the ruins of which you can see in the picture below.

“All we want is to live in peace,” she concludes.