Two weeks ago, 17-year-old Ukrainian twins Yulia and Katia and their friend Eleonora travelled on their own from Dnipro to Lviv, then to Warsaw and finally to Vilnius, where they settled in the home of Kęstutis and Asta Sabaliauskai.
The teenage Ukrainian girls, who studied cooking in their homeland, have already started working at a café in Vilnius and are enjoying peacefulness in the Lithuanian family home.
‘Kids said we need to help’
The Lithuanian carers who took the girls into their home say they consulted their children before making the decision.
“When we decided to help, it wasn’t that my husband and I just decided to do so. We called the children and talked to them about the situation, that we needed to help,” Asta told BNS.
“The children said, “Yes, we need to help”. One son, without any discussion, said, “I will give up my room”. He went to his brother’s room,” she added.
The woman and her husband said they were thinking about taking in one or two Ukrainian children, but suddenly, a third girl appeared.
“I got a call from the child rights [service], and they said there was a third girl, a friend of the twins, and they were all standing there holding hands, crying because they didn’t want to be separated. They asked if we would accept them,” Asta said.
“It was a matter of seconds before I said yes,” she added.
Trip to Lithuania on crowded train
Before travelling to Lithuania, all three girls lived in Dnipro, a few hundred kilometres away from Mariupol, which has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting.
Their journey to Lithuania was not easy.
“It took us 17 hours to get to Lviv,” Eleonora said.
One of the twins, Katia, said there were more than twice as many people inside the wagon than it could accommodate. Most people were standing, some were sitting in the aisles, on suitcases, she added.
Eventually, the girls reached Warsaw, from where a friend of Eleonora’s dad drove them to Vilnius.
With the help of their carers, they quickly found jobs and are now working at the 7 Fridays café in Vilnius, slowly learning to speak Lithuanian.
Borscht and muffins
When Asta was on her way to pick up the Ukrainians, she received a call from her neighbour, who found out about the girls and rushed to make lunch.
“She started making borscht and baking muffins,” the woman said, adding that her neighbours are helping all the time.
“We didn’t ask for help, we didn’t make it public. Over these two weeks, I don’t even know how many times my neighbours have come with food. […] Our community is very friendly, they try to help,” Asta said.
However, the girls say they want to return to Ukraine and hope to be able to do so in the summer.
Parents left behind in Ukraine
The Ukrainian girls speak in chorus about their friends and acquaintances who went to fight against Russia after it invaded Ukraine in late February.
“My friends are defending Dnipro, it’s rather quiet there,” Yulia said.
One of Eleonora’s acquaintances is in Kharkiv, where fierce battles with the Russian forces took place.
“One of my friends joined the army, but he doesn’t tell me everything. He was in Kharkiv, where there was fierce fighting,” the girl said.
The girls’ parents have also stayed in Ukraine and say they feel much more at ease now because their daughters are safe in Lithuania.
“My mother says it’s good that we’re gone and don’t see everything that’s happening,” Eleonora said.
According to Lithuania’s Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service, around 1,000 Ukrainian children have arrived in Lithuania without their parents, but most of them are accompanied by relatives or friends of their families. There are also 17 unaccompanied Ukrainian children in Lithuania.
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