Safe haven in Kinvara for Ukrainian family destroyed by war

Like so many others, one Ukrainian family’s ordinary life changed irrevocably in a single morning last February – setting in train a desperate evacuation that brought a mother and son to find safe haven in Kinvara.

Before their country exploded and their world imploded, Larysa Khokhuda worked as a television scriptwriter, living outside Kyiv with her husband Vasyl, a construction worker, and their four-year-old son Zakhar.

Their home was a tenth-floor apartment in Gostomel, a small town right next to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv which was famous in some circles for one thing – it was home to the world’s biggest and most powerful cargo aircraft.

And that fact – that its Antonov International Airport serves as a base for the Antonov An-225 ‘ Mriya’  (The Dream) – was enough to seal its fate right at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Khokhuda family had just finished renovating their apartment in Gostomel – also known as Hostomel, a city of around 25,000 people – and liked to watch the Mriya’s take-offs and landings from their kitchen window on the tenth floor.

On the morning of February 24, out of the same window, they saw about 30 enemy helicopters shelling the Antonov airport and nearby residential buildings.

Later that evening, the Mriya, like the airport regarded as a strategic target, was reduced to ashes too – and this week, they tell their story in the Connacht Tribune.

“We are infinitely grateful to Ireland; we’re ready to work and be useful to the host country that sheltered us,” Larysa says. “But most of all, I’m dreaming about hugging my husband who stayed in Ukraine.”

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.