Double exile: Ukrainian refugee starts new chapter in North Macedonia

For 33-year-old Veronika Zolotuhina, waking up to the sound of air-raid sirens in Odessa had a sense of déjà vu. 

She recalls a similar trauma from when she lived in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk area in 2014, when the war came to the Donbas region.

As an ethnic Russian from a village near the Russian city of Rostov, she’d been living in Ukraine for more than 17 years, where she moved to do art studies. 

Over time, she decided to stay in Ukraine with her grandparents, in Mariupol, in the south.

Soon after the 2014 conflict started, Veronika decided that it would be safer to move to Odessa, the historic port city on the Black Sea. There, she worked as a fashion designer and made handicrafts that she sold.

“Odessa was a wonderful place to live, in summer it’s especially joyful, full of young people from many countries and nations, and plenty of work opportunities,” Veronika recalls.

Eight years later, however, she was again confronted with the harsh reality of war, as Russian troops attacked Ukraine.

This time, however, Veronika wasn’t alone. Six months earlier, she met Stefan Angelovski, a fitness trainer from North Macedonia who had come to Odessa on vacation.

They fell in love and Stefan moved to Odessa. They rented an apartment in a popular tourist neighbourhood called Arcadia. 

Everything in the port city seemed normal right up until February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered, as he calls it, a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“The day before, we were walking near the beach in Arcadia. There were families with children, people were walking their dogs …  Everything seemed peaceful and quiet,” Veronika recalls. 

The next morning, they heard several explosions nearby, but couldn’t tell where and what exactly was going on. 

Rumours that Russia was planning to do something in Ukraine had persisted for months, but things only started to feel curious when most airlines cancelled flights in and out of the country. 

“It was then that we first started thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to leave the country,” 33-year-old Stefan said. 

However, soon afterwards, the attack began. During the beginning of the fighting, they could not plan anything as the situation was constantly changing. 

Their days were filled with fear and anxiety over what might happen next. One day, their plan was to leave by train to Moldova, but by the time night fell this was already impossible. Another plan included taking a bus to the Romanian border. Within hours, that plan also fell through.

Meanwhile, Stefan got in touch with the Bulgarian embassy in Odessa about an evacuation being jointly organized by the Bulgarian government and North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry.

“As many of the earlier options fell apart, this was our last ditch-effort to escape the country – and it worked,” Stefan explains. 

Long journey to North Macedonia

On the morning of February 27, Stefan and Veronika got on a bus for a two-day journey that would see them travel through Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria before reaching Stefan’s home in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Fortunately, they managed to avoid the crowds massing at the Ukrainian-Moldovan border, using a security corridor that Bulgaria and North Macedonia had organised together.

Carrying only one small suitcase, Veronika tried to take only what was most necessary. As she puts it, she basically needed to pack all of her life into one suitcase.

She couldn’t take most of her winter clothes, or almost everything else that she had bought during the last eight years.

“I left most of my belongings in that apartment – my clothes, shoes, handicrafts that I made, almost everything that I had,” Veronika says. 

As she was leaving the apartment, she said goodbye to her landlord, who said that he would keep all of her and Stefan’s belongings for when they come back. 

Preparing for the long trip, Veronika took some cash but left her other saving in her bank account. She soon learned that it would be very hard to exchange Ukrainian hryvnias for euros, dollars, or any other currencies.

In Moldova, the exchange rate wasn’t good. But in other countries, the exchange offices would not even consider exchanging her hryvnias. She tried to use her Ukrainian debit card, but that also didn’t work, as the bank had already blocked it.

“The cash I have in Ukrainian hryvnias now is almost worthless, and I can’t even use my cards to buy something or withdraw some cash I’d need for here. I tried to reach the bank through an online chat, and they told me that there is nothing they can do about this issue right now,” Veronika says. 

On March 1, Veronika and Stefan finally reached Skopje. Not without additional issues, though, since Veronika’s only travel documents were an old Russian passport and a Ukrainian residency permit. 

At the border crossing between Bulgaria and North Macedonia, she had to explain her difficult situation to the officers for several hours. Fortunately, North Macedonia didn’t require a visa for her to enter, so they quickly let her in. 

“We traveled for two days without sleep, under lots of stress, we could not even eat. All we were thinking about is how to get here safely,” she recalls.

Family scattered across four countries

Veronika is now safe and sound in North Macedonia, but her family is scattered all over Europe. Her mother and sister are in Russia, her grandparents are still in Ukraine, and an aunt is living in Montenegro.

Her biggest concerns are for her grandparents still in Mariupol, which has come under heavy Russian attack. The complex where they live has been bombed by the Russian army.

“They managed to hide on the first floor in one of the buildings, and at the moment are safe, but without power or water,” she says. 

“I hope they remain safe … Unfortunately there is not much that I or the rest of my family can do for them right now,” she adds. 

“I am very angry about what is happening to them and to Ukraine right now. No one wanted this war, and it is not fair that ordinary people are getting to feel most of the consequences from all of this,” she says.

Her sister lives in Moscow. But, seeing how Russia is now being hit by fresh economic sanctions each day, she, too, is thinking of leaving home.

“She does not want to stay in a country which is soon going to be isolated and whose economy won’t be so good and with very much limited job opportunities,” Veronika explains. 

“The war won’t do any good for anyone – neither for Russia nor Ukraine, so I really hope that there will be peace and that the two sides will come to an agreement,” she adds.

While she still hopes to return to Odessa one day, Veronika is now focusing on what comes next – a new life in North Macedonia. 

For now, she can stay up to 90 days in North Macedonia, but she still doesn’t know what other documents she needs to get refugee status or a residence permit, and how the situation will evolve meanwhile. 

“I hope to get a job here and start earning, since I do not know when I would be able to use the money and the savings that I had on my debit cards,” Veronika says. 

“I hope that I will be able to get documents that will regulate my stay here – and can get on with my life.”