Help support Fiona and Vova in Ukraine

Hi, my name is Christina Strauss. I've started this fundraiser to help my friend Fiona and her husband, Vova living in Kyiv, Ukraine.

 

Fiona and Vova are professional figure skaters and aerial silk artists with the world's premier theatrical ice skating company, The Imperial Ice Stars.

 

I’m raising funds to ease the financial burden they face as they were forced to leave behind their belongings, their apartment, their car, their community, and their lives as they know it. A small sports bag each with some clothing items is the only thing they have to their name. All donations will help ensure their basic needs are met, and support them with accommodation and associated costs for restarting their lives.

 

Unfortunately, as everyone knows, Marshal law has been declared by the president, so no men between 18-60 are allowed to leave Ukraine and have to register with the military offices. Vova has been officially registered and Fiona is absolutely terrified that they’re going to send him back to Kiev to fight.

 

If this happens, Fiona will have to make her way to a border somehow and cross into the EU. They are still around 4 hours drive from any border, so busses and transport are not the easiest to find.

 

Here is Fiona's story in her own words:

 

After two years of Covid, and of course no chance for us to work and tour, we were hoping to get back on our feet this year…now a WAR!

 

I arrived back into Ukraine from the UK on the 22nd Feb, enjoyed a peaceful “normal” day on the 23rd and was woken up at 5.30am on the 24th by a massive explosion, less than a kilometer from our apartment. The sound and explosion were terrifying!

At first, we thought it was a gas explosion.

 

As the day went on, the explosions around us intensified; we then learned that we had to get out of Kiev and leave our beautiful little apartment behind. We packed our documents and one small sports bag each, not dreaming we wouldn’t be back in a few days!

 

In our panic, neither of us packed our ice skates…probably our most important items, to ensure we could at least try and recoup some money later.

 

Luckily we managed to find the only petrol station with petrol and no kilometer-long queue and got out of Kiev on the evening of the 24th. We drove through very dark, bad country roads to meet with friends at their parents village home, 140kms from Kiev. The following morning we decided to move further towards the West of Ukraine as we saw how Kiev was being attacked. We siphoned our remaining petrol into our friends car and abandoned our car as it was too old and probably wouldn’t make the trip.

She had done us proud getting us safely out of Kiev!

 

Vova and I bundled into the car with our friends, five adults and a cat.

After a long trip, along only country roads as we didn’t want to use highways and go through many checkpoints, we finally arrived at our friend's family.

It had taken us 13 hours to travel 450kms. Ten adults in a two bedroom house, but at least we were safe.

 

Having been there less than 10 minutes, there was a loud banging on the door. Outside stood the military police, fully armed with guns cocked and pointing at us. Neighbours had heard Russian being spoken and had reported us. No one had thought to change to speaking Ukrainian, which is used in the West of Ukraine as opposed to Russian speaking, Kyiv.

Of course, all our documents were thoroughly checked and everything was okay.

 

The following day, Vova and I were moved to another house as the 1st house was just too full. We are lucky to be where we are right now with a lovely, generous guy. We are still in Ukraine but safe for now.

 

Fiona and Vova are praying that:

Peace will return soon.

They can return to their apartment and hopefully find it undamaged and everything safe.

They can get back to work and start recouping their losses of the last 2.5 years.

 

They really don’t want to ask or accept money from anyone but they're starting to understand that after the devastating last two, Covid years and now their situation in Ukraine, their finances are at rock bottom. To ensure their safety, a little bit of money will definitely give them some security and enable them to get back on their feet, God willing this war ends soon.