Ukrainian expats in Dubai long for home as war interrupts lives

Every time Russia bombards the Ukrainian capital with missiles, the screen of Dmytro Kotelenets’s mobile phone goes dark. The inevitable power outage disrupts the surveillance camera he installed to see his home in central Kyiv. “Everything turns dark on the screen when the electricity goes off. The war must be happening thousands of miles away from Dubai but it still affects us,” he told The National. Mr Kotelenets, his wife Vasylisa Frolova and their son Rodion, 2, moved to the UAE in January 2022, weeks before Putin’s troops swept into Ukraine on February 24 , triggering the greatest conflict in Europe since the Second World War. Now in its second year, it has claimed thousands of lives on both sides and has uprooted thousands of families. About 25,000 Ukrainians have relocated to the UAE , it is estimated. A year into their new life, Mr Kotelenets and his wife say they still cannot fathom how the lives of millions of Ukrainians were turned upside down. “It felt like I had to pack my life into a single suitcase," Ms Frolova, who was a popular TV host in Ukraine, told The National. “My life was easy in Kyiv. Everybody knew me. I could just pick up my phone and things get done. "Suddenly, I feel I am nobody. I am a stranger in this city." ___________________________________ ___________________________________ As a TV producer, Mr Kotelenets knew Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedy actor-turned statesman who many now see as a leader of the free world. “Both of us have worked with President Zelenskyy when he was a television star. In fact, he first auditioned for my show - and we rejected him,” Mr Kotelenets said with a laugh. The couple said they are lucky to have found work in the UAE. “I am producing shows for brands like WarnerBros World in Abu Dhabi, and she has a huge following on her Instagram and YouTube channels," Mr Kotelenets said of his wife. "We are doing our best.” But nothing compensates for their yearning to go home. “Life in Dubai is good. It is child-friendly and comfortable. You may think that makes it easy for us to forget about what happened but it is not true," he said. “We miss the fresh air, the weather in Kyiv. We miss our home, our people. We hope the war will end soon and we can go back soon. “We could have stayed back and helped our country. But our main concern was our son, who was just 10 months at that time. We wanted him to be in a safe place.” The couple said they are thankful to be in a multicultural city. “My son has started speaking English. I also realised materialistic things don’t matter," said Ms Frolova. Ukrainian sisters Margarita Makarova, 31, and Marina Makarova, 28, saw the worst of the conflict before they managed to escape to Dubai in September 2022. They are from the Kharkiv region which was occupied by Russian forces early on. The sisters told The National that they are still haunted by the experience of hiding in bunkers to escape soldiers. “It was the most terrifying time … those few months. It looked like a movie, not real life. There was not a single day or night when our village was not bombed,” said Margarita. Both sisters worked at the famous Argentina Grill restaurant when the war started. “We did not believe the war would happen. We thought it was not possible in this 21st century. But we were wrong,” said Margarita. A few days after the invasion, they travelled to Kutuzivka village bordering Russia where their parents lived. “We had lost all communication with them and we were scared but we reached the village, which was soon occupied by Russia," she said. "We spent days and nights in the bunker of our parents’ apartment as soldiers went about searching each and every house. “We had a limited amount of food and water - for months. The only relief was that we were all together. "But in September, Ukrainian soldiers recaptured our village and people were freed. Our building also came under heavy shelling. Luckily, we could crawl out of the collapsed building to safety.” Leaving their parents behind was a tough decision, said Marina. “We had heard that the owner of the Argentina Grill was opening a new restaurant in Dubai and we thought that was a good opportunity. We are grateful that we have a job and are able to send money home,” she said. Svetlana Kostiuk and her husband Sergii Kostiuk moved to the UAE in April 2022 with their two sons, aged 10 and 2, as the war escalated. They chose the UAE as Ms Kostiuk’s brother and family have been Dubai residents for the past nine years. “We first rented the apartment in Sports City on a monthly basis. Little did we know that the war would last this long,” said Ms Kostiuk, head of advertising for Ukrainian news website Pravda . Her husband was running an advertising agency in Kyiv and currently works in a real estate agency in Dubai. “The good thing is we feel safe here. My son would wake up to the warning sirens before missile attacks and we would carry our children to the bunkers,” said Ms Kostiuk. She said they had to take the tough call of leaving Kyiv after her children’s schools closed and the city was hit by massive power outages. “Even after we moved here, Kyiv came under a barrage of attacks. It was really hard to watch what was happening to our country. We still find it hard to come to terms with it,” a tearful Ms Kostiuk said.

Ukrainian expats in Dubai long for home as war interrupts lives

A year after the Russian invasion, families recount how they are adjusting to a new life