Recently, Ukrainians are fleeing war and flying to Australia to reunite with their loved ones. On Saturday, at Melbourne Airport, a heartwarming reunion was staged.
According to the Time newspaper on March 13, Chrestyna Kmetj held a Ukrainian flag in his hand at the international arrival terminal and hugged his cousin Iryna Balvan and niece Nastya Balvan, who had just flown to Australia.
Kmetj told Platform Nine: "I'm a little incoherently excited, and in the next few days we're going to experience extraordinary emotions. When I take them home and let them see more of their families, they shed tears of joy because they are safe now. ”
Chrestyna Kmetj (second woman from right) and cousin Iryna Balvan (first woman from left) (Credit: Die Zeitung)
Her cousin, Balvan, said that after the war began, her hometown "kept exploding and sounding the alarm", after which she took her daughter to Poland and flew from there to Australia.
She cried when she mentioned her eldest daughter. Her eldest daughter had to stay in Ukraine because of her work, but she did not say what the job was.
Balvan said: "This is the thing that makes me feel the most uncomfortable. ”
Her daughter, Nastya, said that while she had always thought there would be a war, "the shock it brought when it did happen was overwhelming." ”
She said it was difficult to leave everything she had and flee. When asked about her sister, she shed silent tears.
Asked how she felt about finally arriving in Australia, Ms Balvan replied simply: "Safe".
Chrestyna Kmetj and cousin Iryna Balvan get together and hug (Image: Die Zeit)
Natalia Bilianska, another Ukrainian who arrived in Melbourne, said she was struggling to overcome mixed emotions inside her, both relieved and deeply saddened by being away from home.
Bilianska, a disabled person, had difficulty escaping from her four-story apartment to the basement of the building for safety during the airstrike.
She said through Kmetj's translation: "I felt like a tree that had lost its roots and was supposed to stay there, but a storm knocked me down. ”
"Every night, we didn't know where to go because the alarm kept ringing. So, where to sleep – in an apartment or in a bunker? ”
Ms Bilianska said she was "very grateful to have arrived in Australia safely", but she was also eager to return to her home country as soon as possible.
Chrestyna Kmetj and Natalia Bilianska (woman on the right) (Credit: Die Zeit)
Ms Kmetj, a member of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, said she was delighted to see her cousin and niece safe but feared the fate of other relatives who remained local.
"We suggested they leave, but they just said, 'No, we're fighting for Ukraine, fighting for our territory, nobody has the right to take it,'" she said. ”
"So, I don't know if our families are safe or what they're going to do in the future."
Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke announced on Friday that all Ukrainian citizens in Australia whose visas will expire before June 30 this year will automatically receive a six-month visa extension.
It is understood that since February 23, more than 3,000 Ukrainians have obtained Australian visas.