Translated material
"What difference does it make where to die?"
Refugees from Ukraine return back to Donetsk, not finding a job in Russia
The family of refugees from Ukraine arrived in Tomsk in the fall of 2014. Now she wants to go back to Donetsk. In Siberia, the life of the immigrants did not work out from the very beginning. “The locals accepted us hostile,” says Olga Denisenko, the mother of four children.
"There was a myth that we get some huge money, compensation, so we are constantly reproaching us that we are taking work from others." In fact, refugees from Ukraine are not received by any compensation now. Money is paid only for the first time, while immigrants live in the center of temporary accommodation. As soon as they leave the center, they can only rely on themselves.
Olga Denisenko was in the fifth month of pregnancy, when she and her husband and three children had to leave Donetsk. In Tomsk, they arrived in a special train from Rostov. The first time lived in the center for refugees. Then they received a distribution to the Shegarsky district, in the village of Nashchekovo. There, Olga’s husband promised work in the estate, but upon arrival it turned out that this work was not. They did not let them go back to Tomsk.
The administration of the Shegarsky district gave the family a help - 3 thousand rubles per week - and allocated a room in the hostel. There was no bedding, no dishes, I had to buy everything. For several days they lived in the starvation. Locals came to the rescue, mostly elderly. The commandant of the hostel wore borsch and porridge for children from the dining room, her friends brought something. So they ate until dad found work at a construction site. But he could not work there for a long time. I had to quit.
Denisenko's family was left without a source of income. And they had another child. The youngest daughter Karina is now two months old. Because of all the experiences and nervous shocks, Olga disappeared milk.
The first month was helped by district social protection. They brought several packs of mixtures and other products. Although Denisenko wrote a statement for material assistance, they did not receive it. And money is needed for medicines, the baby has stomach problems.
"My children used to eat bread occasionally. Now for us bread is such happiness. Children rejoice in bread."
Olga Denisenko almost does not leave home. He says, it is unpleasant to constantly feel oblique looks, hear you are condemned that you are taking a piece of bread. Even the children were faced with this.
And Denisenko decided to return to Donetsk. "Now we have become calmer, you can return." - "Isn't it scary for you?" “I’m no longer afraid. What difference does it make where to die; here is from hunger and such an attitude or there. But there is at least everything is native. I have my parents there. Mom has already planted a garden. There is some kind of work in construction. There is a city there to be restored there.”
Although, leaving Donetsk, they thought they were leaving from there forever. They wanted to stay in Russia and get Russian citizenship. They did not have time to get citizenship by quota. And now money needs money, but they are not. There is no work either, and there are no possibilities somewhere to find it without citizenship.
“Thanks to good people, we survive here. But it’s impossible. We are adults, we have a lot of children, we must take care of them ourselves, raise them. And here ... You see, sometimes everything is pressing in the chest, but we have to ask people for help, because there is no way out.”
Now the main problem is that there is absolutely no money for the road. To get to Rostov by train, and from there still by bus to Donetsk, a family with four children needs at least thirty thousand. For Denisenko, this is a lot of money, which is simply nowhere to take. When Denisenko left Donetsk, they had to sell all valuable things. Now they have nothing to sell.
Refugees from Ukraine return back to Donetsk, not finding a job in Russia
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