Natalya and her husband, Konstantyn are two outstanding Ukrainian badminton athletes. Living in Villers-le-Lac, they passed on their passion for sport to their three children, all licensed at Badminton Val de Morteau and whose eldest, Anya, was crowned triple champion of France young last November. A member of the BVM’s steering committee, Natalya still has many ties with her country of origin: “I love my country, I go back there every year. I have my parents there, my sister, my nephews, all my friends from college and also those from the national team.
How did you learn about the announcement of the war in Ukraine?
“We knew that there had been tensions for a few months, but when we learned that the Russian president had signed the papers to declare part of Ukraine independent, we spoke about it with the parents and we wondered what would happen next. The next morning, I turned on my phone and I had an awful lot of texts. My heart raced seeing the messages and the first words I read were: war is declared, call your parents quickly.” I had my father on the phone who explained to me that at 5 in the morning, Putin had declared war and bombs had started exploding on all military bases in major cities, including Kharkiv, my city and my parents’ city. »
How do you experience the situation from France, in what state of mind do you find yourself?
“I can’t work because a lot of people write to me, call me, including from outside, to get news, it warms my heart. At first, we didn’t want to believe it: a war in today’s world was unthinkable. Then, we said to ourselves: it will only concern military bases. We still refused to believe it. But now, we understood that it was not going to stop there, it gets worse very quickly and it is very worrying. We were sure nothing was going to happen, now everyone is scared. »
How do you keep yourself informed of the situation on the spot?
“We are in constant contact with family and acquaintances, parents constantly reassure us, they have only been out twice in the bunkers, but since then the situation has gotten even worse. Friends who live in Kiev spend the night in the subways. »
Are they planning to leave the country?
“Some friends left the city and went to the west of the country, to Poland. Others spend their day in basements. We read a lot of things but we can’t do anything. We wanted to pick up the parents but the borders are closed. »
