Vilnius, Lithuania – The war that erupted three years ago shattered lives and displaced millions of Ukrainians. Normality, once taken for granted—as Ukrainians looked to a future full of hope — was shattered in an instant. Ukraine was invaded in February 2022, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes, while those who remained behind lived in fear as bombs rained down and air raid sirens became the new reality.
Families were left with little option but to abandon their homes and seek refuge in foreign lands to protect themselves and their children. Strangers in unfamiliar lands, they faced the daunting task of rebuilding their lives from scratch—learning new languages, acquiring new skills, and adapting to unfamiliar cultures.
Amongst the throngs of people forced to flee, two courageous women had to make the difficult decision to leave Ukraine as war came to their doorstep. Julia Smyrna arrived in Lithuania in autumn 2024, carrying not only the weight of her own loss, but also a fierce determination to protect her children and rebuild their shattered lives. Their resilience is a testament to the capacity of the human spirit to endure even the most unimaginable suffering.
Arriving in Klaipeda from the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, Julia fled with her two young children—a three-year-old daughter and a baby son, not yet a year old.
“Every day of war felt like an unimaginable ordeal, the constant shelling and explosions made normal activities virtually impossible. Going out for a walk with the children was fraught with danger, and worst of all was night-time, spent cowering in corridors and cellars amidst the constant barrage of shelling and air raid sirens,” Julia recounts.
Prior to the war, Julia worked in a pharmacy and lived in a comfortable home. But when a missile hit just 50 meters from her house, she knew that it was too dangerous to stay. “Life was a constant state of tension and fear. Even the neighbourhood playground was hit by a mortar, and it was a miracle that we were not there at the time”, she shares.
Since the war began, many kindergartens in Ukraine were forced to closed, isolating children from their peers and social interactions. Once Julia arrived in Klaipeda, a beautiful coastal city on the Baltic Sea, it was there for the first time in years that her daughter was able to attend school and socially reconnect.