A Ukrainian grandmother has been joyfully reunited with her two-year-old granddaughter who she last saw when they crossed the border into Romania after the Russian invasion.

Natasha embraced little Victoria in a moment caught on camera by Times of Malta earlier this week.

Victoria and her grandmother both travelled to Malta, a few days apart, but they could not meet before their 14-day quarantine period was over.

‘No one believed Russia would attack’

Speaking through Natasha’s sister Lyubov, who acts as their interpreter, they share the story that led them to Malta.

It was just women and children who crossed as all the men, including Victoria’s father Yurii, stayed in Ukraine to fight against the Russian invasion which started on February 24.

They have been on the move since that day. They left their homes in heavily bombed Kharkiv, together with their belongings, pets and even some relatives who could not, or refused to leave.

Natasha knows that her home, the top floor apartment of a block in Kharkiv, has been completely shelled. A lifetime of memories – gone, she says.

“She tells me that she misses all the family photos she had,” her sister Lyubov translates.

She recounts how after travelling for days in Ukraine, they got to the border and stayed in Romania until they reached Malta with the support of relatives here.

Lyubov has been living in Malta for about seven years and is married to a Maltese man.

His family has embraced hers and they now joined forces to help her bring members of her family and close friends to safety in Malta.

Relatives provided two apartments, in Swieqi and Mellieħa, for the Ukrainian asylum seekers to live in for free for a year and supplied basic items, including food and clothes and toys for the children.

Lyubov has been busy juggling her time between the two apartments seeing to their needs as they did not step outside until this week.

Lyubov recalls how, before the pandemic she used to visit Ukraine often. 

She finally managed to visit in January when she spent a month there to celebrate the birthdays of her 84-year-old mother Galyna, her sister Natasha (Victoria’s mother) and nephew Yurii (Victoria’s father).

Back then, Russian troops were lining the Ukrainian border. “No one believed that Russia would attack,” she says.

A few days after she left Ukraine, her mother was hospitalised for post-COVID pneumonia and was discharged on February 24 – the day of the first attack.

“That day, at 5.30am, my sister called to tell me they were being bombed,” she says.

Her sister and husband had already planned to move to her mum, about 40 minutes away, to help with the recovery.

So, they did so, and her son’s family joined as the house – Lyubov and Natasha’s childhood home – was located in a safer area. But when the bombing got closer, they decided they had to leave.

‘We drove for three days’

They drove 1,000km to the Romanian border for three days. They stopped at night in the volunteer centres as travelling was not allowed at night. 

The family travelled together with close friends, in five cars.

Apart from Lyubov’s mother and sister, there was Victoria with her mother, Irina, Irina’s sister Oksana with her two sons Maxim, 14, and Aleksander, 8, as well as Irina’s best friend – and the godmother of Victoria ‒ Alona and her two children Dasha, 10, and Artem, 6.

They crossed the border on March 6. Initially, Alona hesitated to leave Ukraine and her husband Dmitri but in the end decided that the best option for the children was to leave.

Meanwhile, Lyubov left Malta with a Ukrainian colleague and headed to the Romanian border to help.

There her relatives had to fill in several forms and documents before coming to Malta and, on arrival on March 11, they spent two-and-a-half hours at the airport to clear quarantine-related documents.

“The children were hungry and tired and it was late,” Lyubov says.

On arrival, Lyubov’s elderly mother, sister Natasha and Alona and her two children caught the first flight and on arrival they headed to the Swieqi apartment where they stayed for 14 days.

The rest – Irina and Victoria and Oksana and her children – joined later since Oksana did not want to leave her husband, Andrey, behind on his birthday.

Last time, my sister and I were crying and my son asked what happened. I told him I missed my mum and wanted to hug her. He told me he misses his dad. This broke my heart

So they left Bucharest where they stayed in an apartment provided by a friend after spending some days in volunteer-run hotel in Gura, on March 12 and arrived in Malta on March 14.

“His last birthdays were miserable. One year his mother died on his birthday and the next year his father died. I wanted to be with him on his birthday,” she says with Lyubov’s help.

When they eventually came to Malta, they too had to quarantine.

Even though all family members tested negative for coronavirus on arrival, they had to quarantine for two weeks because Ukraine is still considered a dark red country despite facing war.

Following requests by the Ukrainian community in Malta, the government lifted the ban for those seeking asylum, but quarantine is still mandatory.

Now, finally that quarantine is over, the relatives and close friends – who had to stay apart for two weeks – finally have one another. The bureaucratic process to apply for temporary protection now kicks off.

Oksana says that spending 14 days in a small apartment with three energetic children – who just left their home and their war-torn country and their fathers behind – was very tough.

It was especially tough for her and her sister Irina who had lots of time to reminisce about their husbands and parents still in Ukraine.

“Last time, my sister and I were crying and my son asked what happened. I told him I missed my mum and wanted to hug her. He told me he misses his dad. This broke my heart,” Oksana says.

“Another day there were fireworks in Mellieħa and my sons started crying in fear,” she says, with tears in her eyes.

When the quarantine period was over, her sons set the alarm to 5.30am to head outdoors. They had an apartment opposite the sea and they could finally cross to see it up close.

The day they left quarantine, their first outing was to Swieqi. Lyubov picked them up from Mellieħa and took them straight there.

The older children, aged between six and 14, headed straight towards each other and started playing. Victoria headed straight into the arms of her grandmother.

Sisters Oksana, Irina and her best friend Alona embraced. No words were said. The tears and hugs said it all.