“Mom and Dad sent us away.” They did it for love. To save their two daughters. To remove them from the war in Ukraine. Dayana Yastremska is 21, was born in Odessa, and is the number 120 tennis player in the world. Last week, after playing in a tournament in Dubai, he decided to go home, to spend some time with his parents and with his sister Ivanna, fifteen and also a budding tennis player. Everything had yet to happen, the war had not yet taken shape. It was a presentiment that the Ukrainians were trying to drive away. Then it all happened. And the tennis player’s life changed in a few hours.
So Dayana told her dramatic story first in a social post and then in a heartbreaking letter to theTeam. “Odessa was bombed. The explosions were frightening. We all hid in our building’s underground parking lot and waited. We spent the night there too. I had tickets to Lyon, where I was supposed to participate in a tournament. At that point it was no longer possible to fly: Ukraine had closed its airspace. The war had begun ».
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And decisions had to be made quickly. The father decides that the daughters have to escape, they all pack their bags, they head off in the car towards Romania. They drive for two hours, terrified of stumbling upon some roadblock. Or worse: real hit by Russian missiles. “It was scary because we didn’t know what to expect. What if a bomb landed near us? When we got there, there was a huge queue, cars everywhere. We parked and crossed the border on foot ».
“Our father took my sister and me and told us:” I don’t know how this war will end, but you have to take care of each other and fight to make your dreams come true. Build a new life and always be together. Don’t worry about us, everything will be fine. And remember, whatever happens, Ukraine is your homeland. I burst into tears. She hurt me. When we said goodbye to our parents, it was very difficult. In the end, our mother decided not to come: she didn’t want to leave my father alone. “
Now Dayana and Ivanna are safe. They spent one night in a hotel in Bucharest, then they arrived in Lyon. But their parents are still in Ukraine somewhere. And Dayana’s concern is enormous. The tennis player will now participate in the Lyon tournament. The heart is heavy, the nights are sleepless, the thoughts are elsewhere. Dayana thought about how her life had changed in a few days. «I was very reluctant to publish the post. I ended up doing it because I wanted to share this unreal story that no one can understand without having lived it. All I can do today is play tennis. It’s my life. As our father told us, we must build our future ».
Other stories of Vanity Fair that might interest you:
– Ukraine: night in the shelters in Kiev, Russian vehicles close to the city
– Ukraine, “We will spend the night in this bunker, in the cold”
Source: Vanity Fair
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