“It will never stop by itself. The Russians need to do something too.”
There are those who have arrived a few days ago and still have tears and fear of war in their eyes. Who has been here for a few years, but is worried about their family, stuck in Ukraine. And, finally, those who try to help out: generous Italians who bring medicine and basic necessities to the parish of Santa Monica, in Ostia, where boxes are collected ready to be sent to those who need them most.
“I arrived in Italy recently, I speak your language badly, but I can say one thing: where did you put your hand to Russiaover the years, there was only war and ruin “, 63-year-old Alexandra, a green mask in tune with her eyes tired from a long journey, tells AGI she is here alone, her family has remained in Ukraine.
She is not the only one in this situation. “My whole family is there: my son, my husband and my grandchildren,” explains Svetlana, a 57-year-old from Moldova, but permanently in Ukraine until, “Russia decided to invade us,” he recalls. A war that didn’t start for her a few days ago. “You media woke up today-she says-she. In reality my people have been living under bombs for 8 years”.
“I was born in Moldova and I have already been through a war – remember -, then we moved to Ukraine and the same thing happened: Russians never change, Georgia, Chechnya. And now we. “Her eyes are bright and she can hardly walk Dana, 60, originally from Ternopil, a city in western Ukraine. She has been here for 15 years, but she doesn’t sleep at night and thinks about phone calls with her husband and his parents. two children. “They are under the bombs, they are under the bombs”, repeats the woman, who came to Italy to be a caregiver.
The close relatives of the woman are today in Kiev and still cannot come in Italy. “The Russians also fired in the green corridors: they hit children, the sick and the elderly. It is terrible,” the 60-year-old told AGI. “Putin will never stop alone. The Russians need to do something too. They take to the streets for demonstrations. I am incredulous: some of the soldiers who are bombing have Ukrainian wives, they live on the border. We are brothers among us. “explains the woman.
“The first word? When they arrived they cried, only this”, this is how Anna, 67, describes to AGI the arrival of her relatives from Lviv. “They came from Poland by bus to Tiburtina at 2 am. With 4 hours late “, explains the woman next to her 78-year-old husband Igor. Together with them at the parish of Lido di Ostia are the 30-year-old daughter-in-law, the 6-year-old grandson, a pregnant friend and her 7-year-old son years.
There are no men and it is Anna who explains the reason: “My son stayed there in Lviv, because he has to stay to help. At 40 you can’t escape. Then who stays there to fight?”. “They do not want to leave their city. They would die in order not to give up, but all of Europe must intervene to defend us. Close the sky, Ukraine must not be left alone. We must give us a hand”, adds the woman.
“When I arrived here in Italy I looked at the sky: no one was bombing and I thought ‘my children are protected here. There is nothing in life more precious than peace”, Iulia, 30 years old and two children of 2 and 4 years old, arrived in Italy for 6 days. “My husband and my father ran away from Kiev and are located on the border with Poland, it is quieter there. But they are in the cellars, because they are afraid that the Russians will also arrive there “, he says.
“Such an ambitious person who is ready to kill the people, the pregnant women, the children. Putin is destroying everything and our men are still there fighting,” he adds. “I’m very scared,” she confesses before wiping her puffy eyes tears. “Yesterday a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old sister arrived here in the church. They were alone: their parents remained there to fight”, remembers Don Petru Anton Strango, for all ‘Pietro’, parish priest of the church not far from the seafront.
“We are trying to make our people feel united here too. To do good for Ukraine. We never get down on our knees,” says a volunteer from the Cultural School Association. Ukraine “Prestige” city of Rome.
“Why must the innocent die? Putin he does not love the Lord, otherwise he would not make his people suffer in this way. “This is the thought of Carolina, a Calabrian woman for 53 years in Ostia, who every day goes to the parish to bring medicines and other goods to be sent to Ukraine. she is the only one. There are many, in the order of hundreds, the Italians, men and women, who are bringing food in these hours. “We are here to help”, says Enrico, 70 years old from Acilia. “Enough war”, adds his wife Rossana of 66 years.
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