“Bali is a home for me,” the 36-year-old told The Jakarta Post on June 12, several weeks after the family arrived and just two days before they had to leave Indonesia.

At least 7.3 million people have fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion, more than half to Poland. An estimated 7 million Ukrainians have been displaced in the country, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Liubychenko’s family lived in Irpin, a small city just 15 minutes by car from the capital Kyiv.

When the war broke out, Hanna and her daughters managed to leave the country but her husband Dimitry had to stay behind, as the Ukrainian government allowed only women, children and the elderly to evacuate.

A chance for the family to take refuge on the “Island of the Gods” came in April, when a former employer contacted Dimitry.

Dimitry worked for three years as a chef at a Nusa Dua restaurant owned by Balinese hotelier Ngurah Wijaya and his wife Ida Widowati Wijaya, who knew the couple before they were married.

Hanna first came to Bali 15 years ago on a holiday with Dimitry, and had visited the island several times since.

“When I heard about the war, I decided to contact him, offering any help he and his family might need,” said Ida, who also offered to host his family in Bali. “When [Dimitry] said that his wife and children will [come] to Bali, I warmly welcomed them,” she added.

Hanna took no time in accepting the offer. “I decided to flee [to] Bali because I have family here. Ibu Ida [asked] us to come to Bali. It's a little bit like home,” she said in broken English.

Hanna and her two daughters arrived in Bali in mid-April, along with a sister and her baby, and stayed at the Wijayas’ house.

Community effort

In the beginning, it was not easy for Liubychenko and her family to escape the dark shadow of war.

Ida said the sound of an airplane was enough to cause distress to Hanna and her daughters. “It reminded them of attacking Russian military aircraft,” said Ida. During the first weeks of their stay, Ida often saw the family crying. She also noticed that they did not have any appetite.

“The kids [were] crying, I [was] crying. It was a lot of mixed feelings,” recalled Hanna.

Ida also believed that getting used to the tropical weather in Bali from the cold weather in Ukraine might have been a problem.

After they had been in Bali several weeks, however, the Ukrainian refugee family began to settle down in. “I feel a little bit better, but also I miss home, miss my husband, family, friend,” Hanna said, adding that she was grateful to Ida and the local community for embracing her family.

Since Ida and her husband’s hotel business had been hit hard by the pandemic, they gathered their many friends together to help support Hanna and her daughters.

“I feel lucky that I have many kind friends who are willing to help,” Ida said.

Unfortunately, Indonesia’s immigration policy only gave two-month visas to Hanna and her daughters, who had to leave Bali before June 14. So Ida and her friends collected money to pay for their flight to Poland on June 8.

But an unforeseen complication arose in their travel plans. The airline the family was booked with said Hanna could not enter Poland because she did not have a biometric passport. Instead, her daughters could take the flight with Hanna’s sister as their guardian, along with the sister’s baby.

Since Hanna did not have a Schengen visa, which allows entry to 26 European Union countries, she first had to travel to Ukraine and then enter Poland from there.

Once again, Ida and her friends collected money to buy another ticket to Ukraine via Turkey and then Moldova, which departed on June 12.

While she was frightened about traveling through Ukraine, Hanna had no other choice. “I [must]. My daughters [are] in Poland, waiting for me,” she said.

Although her stay was brief, Hanna was grateful for the chance to seek refuge in Bali.

“I feel glad that I have Ibu Ida and many Bali friends who have supported me and my family. I hope I could come back to Bali next time when all is good, for holiday,” she said.

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