When active hostilities began in the territory of Gaza, Olena Yelmina, a resident of Kharkiv, Ukraine, decided to try again to return her native children, whom she had not seen for 11 years, to her homeland. Diplomats in Israel turned the Ukrainian woman's dream into reality, although it was extremely difficult.
Why three Ukrainian children stuck in Gaza and could not return home for years
According to Olena Yelmina, their father took her two sons and daughter there.
The legal husband of the Ukrainian woman dared to take this step 11 years ago and did it by deliberately deceiving Elena.
The woman from Kharkiv did not even suspect that the situation would develop similarly, and without any questions, she let the children and their father visit the places where he was born and grew up.
Olena Yelmina says that she met her ex-Palestinian husband in Ukraine. He studied in Kharkiv and, after his studies, stayed here to work.
As the woman notes, their relationship developed quickly, and everything seemed perfect.
We had a good family. First there were good-natured sons, then a beloved daughter... Then everything changed quite sharply. The husband began to often talk about wanting to go to his homeland, that he decided to raise children according to his religion and that time to introduce children to grandparents. Later he said that his father was dying and wanted to see his grandchildren at the end of his life. The children's vacation was just beginning, and with the light hand of their father, they also had the idea of a trip. I couldn't take a long vacation, so I let them go on a trip with their father, recalls Olena Yelmina.
After that, the husband refused to return the children to Ukraine and offered Olena herself the role of the second woman since she was not a Muslim.
Even though the Ukrainian woman did not miss any opportunity to talk to Jamal, Ahmed and Samira, she was never able to meet them for 11 long years.
The Hamas attack on Israel dramatically changed the fate of the family.
How was it possible to return Ukrainian children to their homeland
Olena Yelmina was well aware that after the start of hostilities in Gaza, her children were in mortal danger, so she rushed to save them.
The father of Jamal, Ahmed and Samira also agreed that they should return to Ukraine, but at the last moment refused to let his 16-year-old daughter go. Therefore, only the 20-year-old and 19-year-old sons returned to their motherland.
Despite this, the woman continues to do everything possible so that Samira also escapes from Gaza and finally sees her mother.
It is worth noting that the process of returning children to Ukraine turned out to be quite tricky because of a severe logistics problem.
The children had no contact, money was needed for a visa in Egypt, some fees from the Palstinian Authonomy, money for transport... Since the beginning of the war, they had been living on the beach (not far from Rafiah), with almost no money, even being fed by one humanitarian woman. I started sounding the alarm, writing to various authorities, says the Ukrainian woman.
According to Olena Yelmina, the evacuation had already been completed when she contacted the Ukrainian embassy in Israel.
The women immediately went to the meeting, and new lists and approvals began.
I can say that Ukrainian diplomats did the impossible. They managed to evacuate my sons, who did not even have passports. Due to the whims of their father, they did not receive their documents on time when they reached adulthood. But they were included in the lists based on their birth certificates... Thanks to the humanity of the diplomats, everything ended well, emphasises Olena Yelmina.
