War in Ukraine: Peterborough’s Ukrainian residents share thoughts on conflict’s first anniversary

February 24 commemorates the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

On the anniversary, emotions are – quite understandably – running high among the city’s Ukrainian residents.

“It is my pain, this whole situation in Ukraine,” says 38-year-old Natalia Patlatiuk.

The former law enforcement officer and humanitarian aid worker left the long-disputed Donbas region in eastern Ukraine with her husband and 13-year-old son soon after the war started.

She arrived in Peterborough in April 2022, settling in Eye shortly after.

“I’ve lost everything in Ukraine,” she reflects, “it’s a great deal of pain for me, for my family, because my parents are still there in the Donbas region.”

Natalia told the Peterborough Telegraph that the past 12 months had been “a very difficult year for our family.”

“New country, new people, new laws - it took time to find jobs, to find accommodation, to find proper way of living.”

She reflected that, while the task of relocating to a new country has made the year speed by, the past 12 months had also somehow managed to be painfully slow. “When you have such pain in your soul,” she laments, “it seems to be long.”

Like many Ukrainians. Natalia has modest yet heartfelt hopes for the future

“I hope that, this year, this conflict will finally end and our country will be free again.”

More than anything, Natalia hopes “there will come a time when I can hug my parents again.”

‘I wish this year was a bad dream’

Community leader and well-known fundraiser Alla Irodenko believes every Ukrainian echoes this sentiment.

“Everybody just wants to go back home to Ukraine,” says the 33-year-old, who moved to the UK when she was eight.

A dynamic volunteer who started helping at Peterborough’s Ukrainian Church as soon as war broke out, Alla said many Ukrainians are, even a year on, still in a state of shock.

“For some people it [the commemoration of the invasion] is not a good thing because it’s like acknowledgement the war happened.”

The Hampton-based mum-of-two admits she too is plagued by denial at times:

“I wish this year was just a bad dream, and we can all just wake up, and nothing happened: everyone’s alive, all the families are still alive, and the buildings are not ruined.”

Alla, who has helped organise the city’s upcoming vigil on February 24, is looking forward to a brighter future.

A future in which she got “to plan the biggest victory party the world has ever seen.”

For now, Alla has issued an invitation to Peterborough’s Ukrainian residents:

“Шановні українці! 24 лютого річниця повномасштабного вторгнення Росії в Україну! 16-45 зустрічаємося біля Town Hall в центрі міста Peterborough щоб взяти участь в пронесенні державного прапора України для підтримки українців та ЗСУ.”

And for anyone else who would like to express solidarity, the message, somewhat simplified, reads:

“Dear friends. Come and join us at the Town Hall in Peterborough on Friday at 4.45pm.”

Speaking for her entire beleaguered country, a resolute Alla issues a rallying call President Zelenskyy would be proud of: “We just go forwards, not backwards,” she says: ”go toward victory, and don’t look back.”