A Ukrainian grandmother who fled the war with her daughter to go live with her granddaughter in Rotherhithe has said that Southwark Park “is like a paradise”.
Nadiia Sulym, 86, came from Kyiv to London in March to escape Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and lives with her granddaughter, photographer Maryna, who moved over several years ago.
Accompanied by her granddaughter and speaking in Russian on a sunny afternoon at the park, Nadiia said: “Here there’s lots of good people. It’s some kind of paradise. Maybe [living in London] is temporary of course, but while it lasts I really like it.
“How great the park is. In Kyiv there aren’t parks like this with this level of cleanness and neatness. Maybe things were going that way before the war, but we won’t know now.”
Asked what she liked about the park, Nadiia said: “There’s so many flowers, there’s so much green. And the people here… you don’t get these alcoholics!…
“It is incomprehensible how welcomed I feel here, I would never think that I would be so welcomed here.”
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She added how grateful she was for her family. “I am so glad that God sent such a wonderful granddaughter… We came here and Marynka has given us everything. She’s looked after us so well and taken everything on her own shoulders.”
Nadiia and her daughter came to London from Kyiv on a bus via Greece while her UK visa was being processed. She was in Kyiv for about ten years before that, having moved there from Donetsk with her daughter to be with Maryna. She grew up in a village now in western Russia.
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Maryna told the News that she takes her grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, for a walk around Southwark Park a few times a week.
“We look at birds, then my grandma starts to remember what sort of birds they had in their village, and she remembers stories about her childhood. We never share our personal stories in our family, and this is the first time I have heard many of them. It’s like a family history walk.”
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Smiling, Nadiia reminisced about her grandfathers, who came to the Kursk region, an area then in Ukraine but now in western Russia, from the Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. They built their village, called Pospeshenka – which would translate as ‘haste’. Later, the region was made part of Russia, and the village was renamed Uspeshnaya – meaning ‘successful’.
Nadiia’s father – “a clever man” – died at the front in the Second World War. “I grew up as an orphan, you could say. It’s difficult to talk about.”
The people of former Soviet countries are very proud of their families’ roles at the forefront of the fight against Nazi Germany. But Nadiia contrasted this with the war currently destroying the lives of millions of Ukrainians. “This war, I don’t even know what kind of war this is. Shooting, bombs – what for?”
Although London is a far cry from the war in Ukraine, this is not the first time Nadiia has lived abroad. After the war, she moved with her husband to Algeria, where he worked in a factory, and she worked in a canteen for state security officers.
Asked if she missed anything, Nadiia at first talked around the question. Maryna explained that her grandmother found it difficult to admit anything was wrong when she was being looked after by her family.
When her granddaughter prompted her, Nadiia eventually said that she missed her husband’s grave in Ukraine. “My husband was a very good man, my father was a good man. But it’s worked out this way.”
So glad to see Nadiia enjoys the park and that she and her daughter Maryna visit regularly. We have a free booklet about the birds of Southwark Park which we can provide if Maryna and Nadiia wish. Also downloadable for free on our website. Please pass on our contact details.
Pat Kingwell
Secretary