Ukraine Teen

Ukraine Teen
'I try to not cry': Teen refugee copes with leaving parents in Ukraine 04:13
Among them is 17-year-old Alla Renska, a tall girl with long blonde hair, carrying her hot pink backpack from class to class.
But Renska is no ordinary student, and she is no longer living an ordinary life -- or the life she envisioned just weeks ago.
Back then, Renska was studying for college exams in her home city of Kyiv, Ukraine , with plans to become an English and Turkish translator.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed all that.
"We heard explosions and our house was shaking," Renska tells CNN.
That's when her parents made the agonizing decision to send her to safety, out of the country.
She still can't believe how quickly her life has changed since the Russian invasion. "It's (the) 21st century, it's Ukraine, it's Europe, why?"
Renska's parents arranged for her to stay with good friends in Hungary as they remained behind in Ukraine to care for her elderly grandmother, who is too frail to travel.
Alla Renska, pictured here with her parents in Ukraine.
"I will never forget that day," she says, recalling the crowds of people who were sheltering in the subway for protection from falling artillery. "Oh my God, so many people were there!"
When Renska arrived at the train station, the crush of the crowd prevented her from saying goodbye to her father. She was shoved onto the train and that was it.
"I cried," Renska recalls, "maybe all night."
Not long after the train left, an air raid siren sounded. Her father had to sleep in the station, not knowing if her train was safe. He wouldn't hear from her until she got to Hungary.
Renska took few photos during the journey -- only ones showing a bleak landscape that she says matched how she felt.
It was during the train journey that she decided to write an email to Korosi Baptist High School, one of Hungary's top schools.
She wrote about the war and explained what had happened to her. She also told them of her accomplishments.
"I won competitions in the history of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language and foreign literature," Renska wrote. "And I have already written three scientific papers at the Kyiv branch of the Small Academy of Sciences in 2020, 2021."
She ended her email with a plea, "I really want to go to school and continue studying!!! I kindly ask you to help me."
She dated the letter, "The 10th day of the war in Ukraine."
Renska took a few photos during her train trip to Hungary. She says the bleak landscape matched how she felt fleeing her homeland.
School officials launched an appeal among parents of the school community, raising about $90,000 to convert some spare shipping containers into dorm rooms with bedrooms, bathrooms, showers and a small kitchen outside the main school building.
These containers are now where Renska sleeps and studies.
She spends her days in classes and learning a new language -- Hungarian.
Nights are spent in the dorm room with a few other teenage girls who also recently fled Ukraine and were welcomed in by the school.
Renska says she likes living so close to the school and having the chance to meet other students from Ukraine.
"In Ukraine I had an incredible class and wonderful teachers. And here are also extraordinary people," she says, adding that they are "wonderful people who have become my family."
The principal of Korosi Baptist High School says it now has enough space to house 12 more students from Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Containers at the Korosi Baptist High Shool have been converted into dorm rooms for Ukrainian refugees.
The school has also provided the girls with a psychologist, a Russian woman, who helps them cope with the trauma they've experienced.
Despite that trauma, Renska says she tries to remain stoic.
"I try not to cry and I try to be strong because my parents, I know that when I cry it makes them feel not very good."
That strength is on display when Renska video calls her parents. It's all smiles as she updates them on school and work.
Her mother, Indira Renska, says that she cannot explain how she feels with her daughter so far away.
"It's too painful (to talk about)," Indira says. "I love her very much. That she is safe now is the main (thing) for me."
A photo Renska's parents sent her right after she left Ukraine, showing the first spring flower to push through the snow near her house.
After the call ends and her mother hangs up, Renska's brave facade falters and she begins to cry.
"It's so unfair that I should be here and my parents there," she says.
Nonetheless, she is determined to stay optimistic.
"I just would like a normal life," Renska says, believing that one day she will be able to return to Ukraine, where she can go back to making goofy videos with her friends, taking selfies and to playing the bandura, a classic Ukrainian instrument that has become a symbol of her country's fight for its existence.
For now, she holds on to a photo her parents sent to her right after she left. It shows the first spring flower to push through the snow near her home. A sign, they say, of brighter times to come.
© 2022 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
By Laura Dolan and Matt Rivers , CNN
Updated 2328 GMT (0728 HKT) April 4, 2022
Budapest, Hungary (CNN) It's a normal school day for students at the Korosi Baptist High School in Budapest, Hungary -- studying, presenting classwork, laughing with friends.

Teen in Ukraine describes chaotic scenes as Russia attacks
Anne-Marie Green and Vladimir Duthiers spoke with Sasha Bondar, a 17-year-old who lives in southeastern Ukraine, about what she's seeing and how her family is coping with the attacks from Russia.

Chrome

Safari

Continue

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Copyright ©2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.

By clicking " Accept all " you agree that Yahoo and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies and process your personal data, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development.

You can select ' Manage settings ' for more information and to manage your choices. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls . Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy . Click here to find out more about our partners.

By
Dane Enerio

04/01/22 AT 6:30 AM
KEY POINTS A Russian soldier, 19, allegedly raped and injured a Ukrainian mother, 27, in the village of Mala Rohan Russian officers arrested the soldier and claimed they would shoot him in the woods The execution would not be recorded, and the soldier's family would be told he died fighting the Ukrainians

© Copyright 2022 IBTimes LLC. All Rights Reserved.
A Russian soldier allegedly raped and injured a Ukrainian woman in a village previously occupied by Russian forces.
The 19-year-old trooper, identified only as Vladimir, was drunk when he arrived at a school in the northeastern Ukrainian village of Mala Rohan at midnight on March 13, The Independent reported.
Around 40 people remained at the school out of the 100 that initially gathered to hide from the prolonged bombing of the village, which was seized by Russian forces on Feb. 25, the day after Russia started invading Ukraine.
Vladimir allegedly grabbed a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman from the group at gunpoint and dragged her to a room on the second floor of the school while her 5-year-old daughter cried in fear.
"He had been drinking all day before he raped the poor girl. He was out of control. This was happening a bit; there didn’t seem to be much discipline among the Russian troops," Sergei, a 55-year-old villager, was quoted as saying.
The woman was able to return at around 7 a.m. after she was repeatedly raped and injected with what Vladimir claimed was a painkiller that night, the victim's mother claimed.
"He raped her, and cut her around the face and neck with a knife. He also cut off some of her hair. My daughter cannot speak about this anymore, she has been so badly affected by what happened," the mother said.
Vladimir allegedly told other soldiers that the woman had gone to the room with him willingly, but residents said that was a lie.
Before the incident, Vladimir allegedly waved a pistol at the school. He also ordered everyone to kneel while threatening to shoot them.
Vladimir also took a man away for around half an hour and forced him to engage in a spree of smashing shop windows with iron rods.
Russian officers arrested Vladimir with the help of Sergei following the alleged rape, and the teen soldier later disappeared.
"A couple of the officers said that the soldier would be shot — this would be done out in the woods. There would be no official record. The guy’s family would be told that he had been killed fighting the Ukrainians," Sergei said.
Three other villagers verified Sergei's account.
Ukrainian authorities have since retaken Mala Rohan.
The villagers’ allegations came after Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova launched an investigation into an incident in the Ukrainian district of Brovary that involved a Russian soldier accused of raping a woman.
© Copyright IBTimes 2022. All rights reserved.

Teen Lesbian Big Tit
Getthotube
Nude Cheer Leader

Ukraine Teen

Report Page