‘They are trying to take our freedom’

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, a Tullamore nurse has spoken of her concern for her country and her pride in her fellow Ukrainians.

Olga Serdyuk has lived in Tullamore for four years and works as a staff nurse in the Midland Regional Hospital.

Originally from the city of Zmiiv, just 30 minutes from Kharkiv, the focus of a relentless Russian onslaught, Olga has some 20 family members remaining in Ukraine.

“I am worried but I am strong because I can see my people are fighting. I can see my people are trying to survive,” she explained.

Olga is in no doubt as to the motivation for the invasion. “They are trying to take our freedom,” she said. “They are trying to take everything from us for no reason.”

When the war started, she was constantly in touch with her relatives by phone. However, after a couple of days, she was advised not to talk on the phone.

Olga explained Ukrainians have been told that the Russians are attempting to gain intelligence by spying on calls. Since then, she has been in contact by text and other means.

“They are safe,” she told the Offaly Independent on Thursday afternoon. She explained that her grandfather in the past had built a bunker under his home. “The situation between Ukraine and Russia was always not stable,” she explained.

However, the war is “very close” to her family in Zmiiv.

Her grandmother has told her that when she leaves the house, she can hear bombs and that the area is full of fires.

“My grandmother told me: 'It's very near. It's very close to us.”

For Olga, the difficulty of witnessing her country being invaded from afar, has been exacerbated by the recent pandemic.

“I couldn't go home for two years due to the Covid pandemic,” she explained.

She recently got married and had planned to have a church wedding in Ukraine for her family. “I know the church is not there anymore,” she said, referencing the fact it has been targeted by Russian air strikes.

It's one of a number of symbolic areas that have been attacked. “Two days ago, they bombed the Square of Freedom in Kharkiv,” she said, explaining the square commemorates Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in August of 1991.

Olga is determined to travel to Ukraine as soon as the war is over to volunteer as a nurse to help the injured and those suffering from the impact of the crisis.

Asked what Irish people can do to help Ukraine, she praised the decision by the Irish Government to waive visa requirements for those arriving from Ukraine.

She said Irish people can also help by assisting in providing housing and education for refugees and psychological support for children when the war is over.