‘My father fell to his knees’: War-torn Ukrainian refugees scarred by falling bombs

Whenever the Sydney sky roared with the sound of a plane engine, Ukrainian refugee siblings Elijah and Amelia would run for shelter in the metropolitan streets.

Whenever the Sydney sky echoed with the roaring sound of a plane engine, Ukrainian refugee Elijah and his sister Amelia would run for shelter in the streets.

The terrifying sound was always fleeting but powerfully reminiscent of falling bombs they had become used to hiding from in the cramped cellar of their apartment block in the war-torn Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.

After 11 weeks living as refugees in Australia, 14,000 km away from family and where a Russian missile struck a crowded shopping centre killing 18 last week, the family is slowly grappling with survivors’ guilt.

“When I walk in the street the air is clean and fresh, there’s a beautiful smell of flowers, frangipanis, it’s so calm and free here,” said the children’s mother Inna Seledkova, 37.

“It’s amazing how everyone smiles here, in Ukraine, Ukrainian they are grumpy, here people are kind, and my children are living a life without missiles and the problems of war.

Ukrainian refugees Inna Seledkova with her husband Danyl Seledkov and their son, Elijah Seledkov, 7, and daughter Amilia Seledkova, 4, at Strathfield Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“When we first came and aeroplanes would fly overhead, the children would run in the street looking for somewhere to hide.

“That’s slowly disappearing now. They now say planes are beautiful and are realising we are no longer living in a war.

Inna Seledkova with her husband Danyl Seledkov and their children son, Illia Seledkov, 7, and daughter Emilia Seledkova, 4, at Strathfield Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“It hurts that our families are still being bombed in our town. My father was in the street when the shopping mall got attacked, he fell to his knees. the tremor of the missiles was so strong it was like an earthquake, he said. We pray they remain safe every day.”

The former Alpha Bank employee who now works in a bakery making pies, arrived with the children in Australia on March 19, 27 days after the Kremlin announced the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian on February 20.

While Russian president Volodymyr Zelensky banned men of fighting age from leaving the country, her husband businessman Seledkov escaped and was able to join the family two months later.
“It was hard waking up on February 24 in the morning to hear the strange sound of missiles in the sky from our apartment in Ukraine, Ukrainian.

Ukrainian refugee siblings Elijah and his sister Amelia would run for shelter in the streets when planes would fly overhead. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“It was like the movie Star Wars, there were helicopters and planes in the sky, we saw from the balcony people running and crying, someone shouted out ‘it’s war’. I still can’t believe it,” Inna said.

“We stayed home, hardly going out, until 6 March. My husband‘s cousin in Australia texted to say he could get us a plane ticket out, the missiles never stopped, the explosions, the children kept crying asking when it would end, “she said.

Elijah and his sister Amelia are adjusting to a new life in Sydney after fleeing Ukraine, Ukrainian. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Every time we heard sirens we would run down to the basement beneath the apartment block, everyone was sheltering down there, the ceiling was low, there was no standing room, it was minus 8 degrees with no electricity, we would sit on the floor with no space to lie down, sometimes for 24 hours at a time.”

“Whenever we heard the sirens, I was never afraid for myself, but for the children. I saw in their eyes they were full of fear,” she said.

Her mother survival instinct for such a pack one suitcase for her and her daughter, four, and seven-year-old son, living behind her disabled sister Olena and mother Ludmila and father Volodymyr Timofieiev.

Trains packed with evacuees from kremenchuk to Lviv would not stop but eventually they caught one and slept inside the train door in a carriage.

They caught a taxi closer to the border and walked 10 km crossing the Polish border with 4000 others in minus 5 degree temperatures. Another bus and a train took them to Cracow.

“I kept looking for the children in the crowds all the time, I was terrified I’d be separated from them, from Payne and we got our documents and finally through to Sydney via Warsaw and Dubai,” she said.

The family now reunited and living in a one-bedroom apartment in Strathfield, and Elijah attends Garden Road Public school in Rosebery Where he speaks little English but he’s learning to adapt.

Sydney Community Foundation, a grassroots charity serving the vulnerable And Ukrainians for in conflict, help the family seek refuge in Sydney as well as refer them to essential families, find accommodation and help with visas.

“My family doesn’t want to come here, they are old, they have their lives, but I feel guilty, you have no neighbours here looking over you, it’s so safe, and the streets are quiet and the air is fresh and clean,” said Inna.

“It’s very different life here, we are happy now but we are worried sick for our families at home.”

To support the charity’s Raisely crowd-funding page visit: https://ukrainian-helping-hand-project.raisely.com/