A Perthshire woman said her husband is haunted by fears for his friends and family in Ukraine as the country endures a “monstrous” assault from Russia.
Morag Allard Tymkewycz and husband Stefan, who live at Lawers beside Loch Tay, are feeling the pressure and bewilderment of the extraordinary events in Ukraine.
Morag (56) wed Stefan (62) in 2018. He is the son of a Ukrainian PoW stationed at a Scottish WW2 camp, who had settled in Edinburgh with other family members from Ukraine after his release.
Scotland is Stefan’s birthplace but his cultural heart belongs to Ukraine where he has plenty of close cousins who are now at the forefront of his mind.
He and his sister Louisa grew up with a big part of their life being entwined with the Ukrainian Community Centre in Edinburgh. Both were members of the club since birth, Stefan maintaining his identity and making a close network of friends with fellow Ukrainian families.
Stefan is now secretary of the Ukrainian Centre’s committee.
But Morag told the Perthshire Advertiser that since the invasion began just three weeks ago, her “strong-minded, stoical, proud and sometimes stubborn” husband has been so affected by the monstrous things happening to his people, that he has ceased to speak in public about Ukraine.
She revealed that such is the craziness of his new reality, that Stefan, an accomplished public speaker, currently feels uncomfortable discussing the situation in Ukraine.
“He is finding all of this unbearable and has ‘retreated’ from speaking to people about what's going on as he finds it too overwhelming,” explained Morag.
The couple wed at Dalkeith Country Park - not far from the internment camp where Stefan’s dad had been held, they later discovered.
After a wedding reception in the Edinburgh Ukrainian Centre in Royal Terrace - where Stefan wore traditional Ukrainian dress on his top half and a kilt on his bottom half - the pair took their honeymoon in Perthshire, climbing Ben Lawers to mark their new start together.
They looked for a place to take weekend breaks from their main home in Edinburgh and loved the area beside Loch Tay.
They bought a plot of land at Lawers and, over three years, got stuck into a building project, putting up their own house.
They did a lot of the work themselves and during lockdown they stayed at their new Perthshire smallholding, with retired nurse Morag helping a neighbouring farmer with lambing.
Stefan and Morag are in the process of moving out of their Edinburgh flat this month to make Lawers their full-time home. Morag had taken early retirement and this was meant to be ‘the best time of life’ for the two of them.
But then Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine and the heavy rumble of war turned the couple’s reality inside out.
Morag has supported Stefan’s sudden emotional dread and despair. They recently joined his sister at a demonstration outside the Russian Consulate.
Their local Perthshire pub, The Lawers Hotel, has hoisted a Ukrainian flag given by Stefan and Morag above the roof, flashing blue and yellow over Loch Tay.
“We are shocked. We are sad. But we are not surprised Putin did this to be honest,” said Morag. “Perhaps surprised by the colossal scale of events, but we knew he had plans.
“I’m not a cryer, but these past three weeks, the tears are always there. When I was at the Ukrainian centre people were queuing down the road to hand in donations. One old lady put two teddies in my hand. I felt overwhelmed, thinking of the children these were intended for.
“Stefan’s not normally prone to emotion but things have hit him horribly. Anxiety increases day by day.
“He has a cousin, Alexander, in Lutsk in western Ukraine. We were speaking to him on the phone. It has been under constant bombardment and we could hear missiles exploding in the background of the call.
“Another cousin, Laysa, was in Kyiv. She has two young children and, with her husband, they have fled. They made is to western Ukraine where it is safer, but they are far from safe yet. Her husband had to go back and fight.
“It is so, so distressing. We are aware of people hiding in basements.
“Messages coming to us alert us to the chaos of money - and there is no food to buy. We hear Russians are deliberately bombing bakeries.
"Ukrainians are so incredibly determined. The cousins sent me a message yesterday. It had me in tears. It read: 'Hi there. We stay here. All is well with us. We do not complain. Ukraine will win!' - so proud and so determined, even while they are under attack."
She added: “I want to say it is good to see so many people in Perthshire wishing to help. Stefan tells me it’s so important to morale that Ukrainians know they are not forgotten in this terrible situation.”
Morag advised, in place of donations of clothing and items that would need road transport to refugees gathering in Poland, supporting an organised financial appeal.
The GoFundMe appeal, Medical Help Ukraine - https://gofund.me/e6bbd777 - has so far raised €581,528 of a €1million goal.
