“They have traveled from Ukraine to Venice and I am going to look for them to bring them to Ibiza“, explained Ivanka Martyniuk yesterday, a Ukrainian resident in Ibiza for 11 years who has left for Venice (Italy) to be reunited with her 16 year old daughter, her sister-in-law and her two small nieces, who lived in Ukraine and have fled the situation due to the Russian invasion. After a long “two-day” journey, they managed to leave the country.
A few days ago Ivanka explained to the Diario de Ibiza that her relatives lived very close to Ivano-Frankivsk, whose airport has been attacked with Russian missiles and that, although communication was “constant”, she did not know what was going to happen to them.
Finally her daughter, together with her sister-in-law and the two minors, decided to try to leave the country. First they traveled by car to Romania, where they were given food, and then a bus took them to the Italian city of Venice.
After the long and “tiring” trip, yesterday they were waiting in a hotel in Venice for Ivanka and her brother-in-law to meet them and return to the island together.
Around 3:30pm yesterday, Martyniuk and her brother-in-law left Ibiza by boat to the port of Valencia. Once there, the plan was to travel by car to Venice and repeat a similar trip for the return. Ivanka’s plan is to return with them tomorrow to the island.
Sadness
“We are very sad, it is a very painful thing that cannot be explained. But above all we are very sad”. This is how Ivanka describes the situation the Ukrainians are going through because of the Russian invasion. Moreover, “only women have been able to leave the country. Even so, it is also complicated for them, my family has been lucky because when traveling with two little girls, they have been allowed to cross the border,” she says.
However, the men, including her brother, “can no longer leave”, as the Ukrainian government has enforced martial law throughout the country. President Volodymir Zelensky has recalled all reservists following the attack on Ukrainian territory by Russia.
In Ukraine “they want to fight”
However, Ivanka assures that “most of the men do not want to leave anyway because “they want to fight”. Even “many Ukrainians who were living outside Ukraine, in Poland or France, have come back to fight and defend the country. There are a lot of volunteers,” she adds.
From Spain, they are sending “money, food and we are trying to help as much as we can because there is a shortage of some basic necessities”, she explains.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.