Forced to leave their home city of Mykolaiv due to the war, Valentyna and Vyacheslav moved to Estonia, where they are gradually building their new life. Here, they are learning the Estonian language, learning about local traditions, trying blood sausages with jam, and, step by step, establishing their new home.
Valentyna and Vyacheslav come from Mykolaiv, and they have always felt a specific connection to it. ‘I was born in Mykolaiv, I grew up and lived there, and I never even thought about moving away,’ says Valentyna. To her husband, Vyacheslav, Mykolaiv was a calm and quiet harbour compared to the crowded Kyiv, where he used to live during his studies. Their home city featured straight streets without traffic jams, the southern sun, and the proximity of the sea, and their friends and relatives made the city a true home.
From basement to Bucharest, from Bucharest to Tallinn
When the war broke out, Valentyna did not even think about leaving Ukraine. However, their fear for the safety of her relatives and the life of her 5-month-old nephew became the crucial factor. ‘It was too scary,’ she recalls. ‘We kept hiding in the basement, and eventually we decided to leave and get my sister’s baby out of the country.’
The company she had been working for organised the evacuation of their employees from Mykolaiv; with her sister and nephew, she moved to Bucharest. Later, when Vyacheslav’s contract in Pakistan was over, he joined his wife.
Already in Romania, Vyacheslav, who worked in the field of aviation, learned that the company he had been working for had decided to suspend its activities. He had to start looking for a job in Europe. ‘I do not know why, but Tallinn always attracted me. Probably because many people from Mykolaiv used to work in Estonia and told me about their life here,’ he says. Thanks to an acquaintance who had already worked in Estonia, Vyacheslav managed to send his CV, received a response, and soon came here. The company compensated his flight ticket and the first three weeks’ living expenses in Estonia.
The first difficulties of relocation
Finding a flat in Tallinn turned out to be a challenge due to the significant influx of refugees and high demand for accommodation. ‘We started looking for an apartment immediately after arrival, as the company covered only the first three weeks of our stay. We were trying to find something close to work,’ says Vyacheslav. Their basic requirements were simple: a separate kitchen, a standard-size fridge, and a balcony for drying laundry. The communication with owners and brokers, most of the time, was easy.
Only once, the couple received an explicit refusal. ‘Once, they told us openly, “We do not rent out to Ukrainians.” We just said, well, okay, and continued our quest,’ Vyacheslav recalls. According to him, the absence of a language barrier significantly facilitated the process, ‘I was surprised that in Estonia, everyone speaks English, even older people.’
Real challenges for the family, however, were yet to come. The most difficult after the move was not settling in a new place, but coming to terms with leaving their home city, Mykolaiv, and their relatives. Vyacheslav remembers, ‘I found the old keys to my flat and started crying looking at them.’ Valentyna also reveals that she was captured by sadness and anxiety, ‘I wanted to have my home and my old life back, and it was hard to realise that I could not be next to my friends and relatives.’ The news from Ukraine only deepened the homesickness, but work was a welcome distraction.
New country, new roles: how Vyacheslav and Valentyna are building their careers in Estonia
Before moving to Estonia, Vyacheslav had been working as an engineer at the aviation plant in Mykolaiv for nine years; he started his career as a technician. Now he works in Tallinn for an international company, and his colleagues come from Estonia, Ukraine, and other countries.
In Estonia, he started working as a mechanic again; according to him, the engineering position here required more office work. ‘To me, just sitting in the office doing paperwork is the worst.’ To him, manual work, direct contact with machines, is important. ‘I have never worked with these machines before; therefore, first I have to study, and then move forward.’
Since 2018, Valentyna had been working as a secretary in the sales department of a large-scale international company. After moving to Estonia, she was still working remotely, but in a year, the company decided to bring the employees back to the office in Ukraine, so Valentyna had to quit. Here, she has not even thought about a position in sales. ‘I thought I would start as a hotel maid here, but this was not physically feasible for me. Therefore, I decided to continue learning the language and while also becoming self-employed.’ The young woman confesses that she is missing her former team, and she wanted to grow within the company if she continued working there. In the future, Valentyna is planning to find a job in Tallinn, ‘Even being a homebird like me, I want to work in a team, to communicate, to share my life and make friends.’
Valentyna has been fond of handicraft – embroidery, crocheting, drawing – since her childhood. Five years ago, during the lockdown, for the first time in her life, she crocheted a toy for a child of her friends, but back then, it was just a hobby, and in Estonia, the craftwork turned out to be a business. Now she crochets to earn some money and meet new people. She participates in fairs organised by the Association of Ukrainian Organisations in Estonia, where she has met other craftspeople and clients. Today, her toys have found homes in Ukraine, Estonia, France, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Latvia, and Moldova.
Estonian step by step: motivation, challenges, and small victories
Since the beginning, the couple has understood the importance of being respectful towards the culture and language of their new country. For the adaptation and the extension of their residence permit, they had to know the language at least at level A2. ‘We do not understand how it can be possible to live in a country without knowing at least the basics of the language’, they say.
During the A1 course in the Settle in Estonia adaptation program, their teacher, Evelin, impressed Valentyna a lot. ‘Somehow, she can explain things so clearly that it all looks logical and comprehensible. I was excited.’ Valentyna diligently prepared for each class; she drew tables for better memorisation and shared her new knowledge with her husband. The A2 level was harder as the group was diverse, and many of her classmates could already clearly express their thoughts in Estonian. Challenges, however, did not stop Valentyna, and she is planning to continue leaning the language at level B1.
Valentyna notes that even basic vocabulary helps to overcome the language barrier: she can order meals in a restaurant or pay at the cashier without using English or Russian. She was overjoyed when she managed to read her first book in Estonian and understand up to 80% of the content.
Initially, Vyacheslav was learning the language online, but he found offline classes more suitable for more in-depth learning. He noticed significant progress in communication with colleagues and everyday situations as he started speaking in a shop or a café. In his opinion, the best method to learn a language is live communication with native speakers.
‘Would want to put down roots here’: life and adaptation in Estonia
Vyacheslav confesses that initially, a life in Estonia seemed uncertain, but gradually, Estonia turned out to be a place for them where living is comfortable, and where they would like to stay. ‘I am not a rolling stone. I like stability in my life’, Valentyna agrees with her husband.
They like the climate, the convenient infrastructure, and the well-developed digital services that help to settle most matters using a phone.
The unique parts of the cuisine were a discovery for the couple as well. For example, blood sausages with cranberry jam were a surprise. ‘We used to combine salty with salty and sweet with sweet. Here, it is all different. Like salted caramel. Now, when visiting fairs, we always buy those sausages’, they laugh.
Valentyna states that living in Estonia has changed her and her husband: before, they considered themselves ‘city dwellers’, but now they have started loving nature, hiking in the bogs, and even picking mushrooms. She was especially impressed by modern museums and the botanical garden in Tartu. Gradually, Estonia turned out to be a true home for them: coming back from her trips to Ukraine, Valentyna feels being home.
After almost three years of living in Estonia, Valentyna and Vyacheslav have found a new home that they do not want to lose. In their new home, they can feel care and support from Estonians towards Ukrainians, and they value simple pleasures like sunsets and hiking in nature.
Photo: A.G. Foto OÜ
The Settle in Estonia Programme is a free educational programme provided by the Estonian state which is intended to help the foreigners who have arrived in Estonia to adapt and become accustomed to local life more easily. We offer courses for people who have come to live or study in Estonia and have lived here for less than 5 years. For example, war refugees to whom Estonia offers international or temporary protection, as well as people who have come to Estonia to work or do business here or relocate with their family member. The adaptation program The Settle in Estonia Programme is free for participants. We offer language training and other courses to help you cope with everyday life in Estonia. Read more and register: https://integratsioon.ee/en/kohanemine. The adaptation programme is co-funded by the European Union and the state budget.