‘Russia takes my home for the second time’: Khachatrian arrived in Mexico after being displaced by war

Khachatrian Marharyta, a 28-year-old woman, was displaced due to invasion of ukraine. This is the second time she has been forced to leave her home, as she tells in an interview for GlobeLiveMedia Mexico a year after the start of the war.

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A year after the conflict, Ambassador Oksana Dramaretsk also called on Latin American countries to apply political and economic measures

Although he currently resides in Mexican territory, Khachatrian has lived in Jarkov —one of the first cities to be attacked— when the conflict in Ukraine burst.

She remembers that a few days before the beginning of the attacks, many disturbing news circulated, however, the war represented a possible scenario, but not a certainty.

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In addition to making a strong appeal to the Mexican government, the diplomatic representative recounted her experience after 365 days of war in Ukrainian territory

On February 21, 2022, Vladimir Poutine signed decrees in which Russia recognized Ukrainian territory (located Donbass) such as the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic. Accompanied by these actions, Putin delivered a speech in which he accused the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (I WILL TAKE) to try to use Ukraine as a military post.

With the tension in the air (and living so close to the border), Marharyta, along with friends and colleagues, opted to buy plane tickets to Turkey as a preventive measure. His flight was scheduled for February 26, however, the bombs came before.

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The town where Karina Noemí Velasco Guzmán lives was not occupied by the invading army: however, the shortage of supplies and rising costs affected the whole country.

Thus, on February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukrainehave been reported bombing raid and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was captured by Russia.

“I was awake when the explosions happened. That day, I felt very anxious and worried, I looked at my watch and wondered when I was going to sleep. That night my colleague had asked me to stay at his place because I couldn’t sleep alone in mine having this anxiety, (then) we heard the explosions, we looked out the balcony window and saw an explosion, in which my colleague said to me: ‘We have to go,’ he recalls.

With the start of the invasion, get out of Jarkov it has become an odyssey. Neither Khachatrian Marharyta nor his colleague had a car, so it took them more than two hours to find someone who could drive them to Lviva demarcation located in the west of Ukraine, which has become an exit door for people displaced by the war due to its proximity to Poland.

After a journey of nearly 36 hours, Khachatrian and company managed to arrive at their destination, once there they decided to settle down, however, their stay was brief since Lviv began to be shelled by Russian forces. From that moment, Khachatrian decided to leave Ukraine for Mexico, where some of his friends were already.

Almost a year after his experience, Khachatrian said what happened in February 2022 was like repeating what he experienced in Crimea nine years ago.

“For me it is very painful to experience it for the second time. Russia is taking my house away from me for the second time. First they took the Crimea from meI couldn’t go home freely with my family, and now it’s Jarkov“, he said.

And it is that the invasion that Ukraine is currently facing is one of the most critical points in a long history marked by conflict with Russia. Among the knots of war, what happened in 2014 stands out, the year when the government led by Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsulapart of this territory of Ukraine.

October 2022, a Russian missile attacked the city of Lviv. (Photo: REUTERS/Pavlo Palamarchuk)

This marked a turning point between the two nations and signified not only the start of a civil conflict between Ukrainians and pro-Russian rebels, but also the separation of families, as is the case with Khachatrian.

“It’s very painful because I grew up with my mother and my brother, also with my grandparents, and I grew up with the fear of not seeing them again, because they are old”, a- he said. This is where Khachatrian saw the unbridled hatred spring from.

“Every day the hatred towards Russia grows stronger, towards the war that has started, which deprives people of what is most precious to them: their families, their homes, their health, their lives. I think Ukrainians understand me perfectly: the hatred that we have towards Russia, towards the Russian government, it is very difficult to compare it to anything, I do not know if I have ever felt something like that in my life, and I hope I will never feel it again.

Due to the invasion, UNHCR recorded that more than 8 million people had to leave Ukraine and another 5.3 million were internally displaced.

In addition, during these 12 months, there were 18 thousand 606 million 941 movements out of the country and 10 thousand 297 million 001 of income to the same territory. According to the authorities, this income can be pendulum, because it is people who come and go in search of resources.