Love blooms in Serbia between Ukrainian and Russian “enemies”

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — She is from Ukraine and he is from Russia. Their love blossomed online, but with their peoples at war, the odds of their relationship continuing were against them. However, it didn’t take long for the young couple to win.

Maria Vygovskaya and Yuri Kurochkin, now 23, fell in love while playing an online game. But a Russian invasion of a neighboring country threatened to undermine their relationship before it even started to develop. They boldly turned their backs on the enmity generated by the war that engulfed their homeland, and decided to be together.

Vygovskaya lived in Zvyagel, not far from the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and Kurochkin lived in St. Petersburg, Russia. Despite the seemingly insurmountable distance, the couple did not give up.

“It was not difficult,” Vygovskaya said, smiling. “I was not afraid, not at all. I’m happy. Because I am loved.”

Kurochkin recalled how the couple began planning a personal meeting.

“That was a year ago … I started to apply for my international passport to visit Maria in Ukraine,” Kurochkin recalled. – I graduated in January, and as you know, in February the war broke out, which ruined all our plans. “.

Any hope of a meeting seemed to have evaporated amid Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, which drew widespread condemnation and resulted in millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country.

Vygovskaya and Kurochkin were confused. She moved to the Czech Republic shortly after the start of the war, while he stayed at home in Russia. But they didn’t give up. They began to consider “some options for cohabitation,” said Kurochkin.

The answer was Serbia, a brother-Slavic nation in the Balkans that remained friendly to Russia and where Russians could enter without a visa. The capital of Serbia, Belgrade, became the site of the first meeting between Vygovskaya and Kurochkin.

“I arrived in Serbia on April 27 and have been waiting for her for several days,” he said. “She came from the Czech Republic and we met at the central bus station.”

The story goes on

He was everything she imagined, Vygovskaya said.

“It was a moment of incredible joy,” she said. “I drove for 16 hours and did not sleep, could not sleep. So, I got off the bus and fell into his arms.”

Their new life together began at the same moment. The hostel served as their first refuge until the couple found a small apartment in the suburbs of Belgrade. They worked part-time in various positions, studying IT online at one of the St. Petersburg universities.

Living together was not without problems. Last July, pro-Russian extremists in Serbia painted a huge Z on their house, a symbol of Russia’s invasion, and the attackers broke into their apartment. According to Kurochkin, they were also attacked by a group of hooligans.

It is estimated that about 200,000 Russians and about 20,000 Ukrainians came to Serbia last year. Many Russians have set up businesses in the Balkan country, which has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia despite seeking European Union membership.

“We sometimes talk about the war, but we don’t have any problems with each other,” Kurochkin said. “With other people, of course (we have), because there are a lot of people, there are a lot of points of view, so it’s impossible to process them all.”

Vygovskaya was most concerned about how other Ukrainians would perceive her because of her relationship, even through her own family.

“What will happen next? We’ll see,” she said. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, there is even a danger of a nuclear war, that’s what they’re scaring us now. I can’t look too far ahead.”

Kurochkin said that they would just accept things as they are: “We are happy because we are together.”

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Learn more about AP news at https: apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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