Reality & Beyond Ltd has had long links with Ukraine and with Crimea before the Russian grab.
Our last organised visit was in September 2014: Krakow and Lviv while fighting was ongoing in the East.
My husband’s brother, Christopher, has lived in Ukraine for the last 30 years with his Ukrainian partner. Both speak fluent Russian and Ukrainian. I have begged them to come out to Romania where our house would offer a warm welcome however, they have decided to stay. Although they acknowledge that the refugees are in great need, so are the local people who cannot now get out. Of course, it is difficult to move with bridges blown and with road blocks in place.
He has been sending back remarkable daily bulletins by any means that he can. It appears that the mayors in many of these shattered cities are the rallying point for local aid – food medicines and water. All in short supply.
Christopher has been collecting money through family and friends to deliver tractor loads of potatoes and getting people to hospital where possible. He lives on an island just west of Kherson which, to all intents and purposes, has been taken by the Russians. I wrote this recently to a group I belong to in Edinburgh.
‘I have heard again from my brother in law in Ukraine who has now had friends killed and is angered by the ‘jaw jaw’ approach of Bojo and Biden accusing the West of using the Ukrainians as human shields, or words to that effect.
It might be a time to read a book by George Tomaziu who was an artist, worked for MI6 against the Nazis and then was imprisioned and tortured by the communist regime in Romania. I recommend the book as it covers Romania, the Crimea and Odessa under both Nazi and Communist regimes. The first edition was called The Witness. It is about to be republished as Spy, Artist, Prisoner.
George Tomaziu made friends with the Reids, then in the British Embassy in Bucharest, who managed to get his family out of Romania in 1969. Jane Reid translated Tomaziu’s story which is beautifully written and heart wrenching at the same time. It provides the most extraordinary back drop to what is happening now in the Ukraine.
I have found it so relevant and moving that we have invited Jane Reid, who is now 89, to speak at the Transylvanian Book Festival, which is happening this year from 15th to 18th September. www.transylvanianbookfestival.co.uk
Lucy’
Images below are from Lucy’s last trip to Odessa.
