Sofiia, soon to take on the role as UoA Ukrainian Society president, is a third year computer science student. Originally from the eastern city Kharkiv, Sofiia spoke with The Gaudie about navigating her move to Scotland in the midst of war.
How old were you when you moved here?
I was 16. I was about to go in my last year of high school in Ukraine, and I came to the Highlands. I went to high school there, so I went to both schools at the same time. I graduated from my Ukrainian school and here from S5 and then I just came straight to uni.
So, you had two schools at the same time?
Yeah. The only reason why I had to do it is because my Ukrainian school got bombed on my birthday, in June 2022.
That’s when I basically decided to move somewhere, and the UK was one of the options, because I spoke English back then.
Did you come with your family?
I came with my mom and my sister. They’re still in the Highlands. They didn’t move to Aberdeen, it’s just me.
Are you here under the Homes for Ukrainians visa?
Yes. It’s fine, but also it’s a bit hard to think about the future. I can’t really think about what I’m going to do, because my visa is expiring in February 2027. They said they would extend it for another two years which means I can do my master’s here as well. But after, I have no idea, because if I don’t get a job, I’ll have to leave.
It just sounds silly to me to have undergraduates and masters from Britain and then move back to Ukraine. I probably won’t find a job there.
So there’s a lot of uncertainty about the future?
There is a lot of uncertainty, especially because it doesn’t go towards a passport. You just have to go into work with something like a student visa. The work visa requirements right now are just insane. I don’t know what’s gonna be there for me in the future.
But also, I’m grateful that there is an opportunity for me to be there right now. I don’t know what it’s gonna be tomorrow, but today is fine.
How did you find navigating moving over here?
So, because I’m from the East, I moved first to the West of Ukraine and tried to settle there. I just realised I couldn’t really stay in a country where there was nothing left for me. So, we decided to move to the UK.
We found a bus with volunteers from Birmingham – they were travelling to Poland and then back here. We found a sponsor, an amazing woman, and that’s why we moved. We got on the bus for a three-day trip.
Because I knew English, it was easy to adapt. My sister was only 7 years old, so for her it was quite hard because she didn’t know the language. Now, she’s fluent. Now she starts to forget Ukrainian and she sounds very Scottish to me. My mom settled down pretty fine.
My dad is still in Ukraine; I haven’t seen him in probably three years. It’s very hard to contact him, and it’s hard to stay in contact when people are there. It’s hard to explain that, even though I’m far from Ukraine, I still feel everything that happens there. And I remember what happened to me and it’s hard. But I guess you just get used to it over time.
What do you miss the most about Ukraine?
I miss my family and I miss my friends. Also the things that you’re used to, like that I never graduated properly. You know those COVID kids that are always saying, like, “we never had a graduation”, and that’s how I feel.
I went back to Ukraine once in these four years. I had to go and see my school. There’s pretty much nothing left from school, because it got bombed two or three times by that time.
So it’s probably the memories I miss.
Is there any way that you can make Aberdeen feel more like your home?
I already call Aberdeen my home, or Scotland altogether. Because when I travel, I know I’ll go back. I have my job, my friends, and university. I got a hamster. I know that I will go home to Scotland and it feels like home.
Aberdeen is nice. It reminds me sometimes of my town and I’m like, “oh, we used to have the same little building or like, I used to go there in the same place back in my city”.
There’s quite a lot of things Scottish people do for us to feel like we are welcome.
The Ukrainian Society hosted a lot of events throughout the last year. What is the purpose of having these events?
The main purpose is, because there’s a lot of Ukrainians, and even though there is a part of us that tries to stay together, there are people that don’t even know anything about the society.
I think the main purpose is for them to feel a bit of a home vibe – to come and just chill in a 1st language or to eat traditional food or to remember things. Because we do quite often go into, “oh remember back then in your city”, or tell all the jokes about Ukraine.
On the other hand, we don’t want people to forget that the war is still going on. With our society, we do have political sort of events where we put up posters or do a march around the campus, and just try to tell people, “yes, we are here, but also there are so many people back at home that still suffer”.
How do the people at Aberdeen University feel about Ukraine? Are people supportive of you if they see you demonstrating on the streets?
Sometimes we get people coming and asking, “what is this for?” or “how can we help?”
There is another side – when we would put up a poster that the war is still going on, in a couple of hours, the posters would be gone. It’s like people are just ripping them off, and there is nothing we can do about that. We can put them up again, but they will be gone again.
I guess some people don’t want to hear that the war is going on, because of their own safe bubble. But you can’t be apolitical in this world.
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