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Ukrainians trapped in Thailand fight despair with protests, fundraising as war ravages homeland
- Expatriate Ukrainians have joined together with sympathetic Thais to protest Russia’s invasion of their homeland, and raise money for vital supplies
- Hundreds of their compatriots remained stranded as tourists in Thailand – not knowing how, or when, they’ll be able to return to home
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Jitsiree Thongnoiin Bangkok
When Iliana Martseniak’s family in Kharkiv first messaged her a month ago to tell her about Russia’s invasion of their homeland, she said she was “incredibly scared and completely devastated”.
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The 37-year-old has been in Bangkok for the past four years and is part of a small community of Ukrainians living thousands of miles away in Thailand whose lives have nevertheless been upended by the war back home.
“I was not able to believe that this had become a reality. I thought it was some misunderstanding or a joke,” she said. “It’s impossible to imagine something like this could happen in the 21st century.”
Even after weeks of a brutal Russian military assault on Ukraine that has claimed hundreds of lives, Martseniak said she was still struggling to come to terms with the reality of war in her home country.
When she spoke to This Week In Asia, her parents and younger sister had fled the besieged Kharkiv for Lviv on the Polish border, where the women were waiting to be evacuated as her father – barred, like all men aged 18 to 60 from legally leaving the country – had to find his own way across.
“I call my family every hour and I am very worried if they do not reply because when you’re here and they’re there it’s very stressful when you don’t know what is happening,” she said.
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