We talked to Masha from our ACHTUNG No. 44 “Beruhigt Euch Nicht” issue about her journey from Ukraine to Berlin. We’ve met Masha in the Summer of 2022 on a hot day to shoot the “East Side Story” editorial with photographer Stephie Braun and two of her close friends and dance companions.

ACHTUNG: How did you get to Berlin?

Masha: In Kyiv I used to live in a district close to the direction, from which the first Kyiv attack started. After a night in a shelter, me and my mother decided to go to the countryside to stay with our relatives. We were afraid of the occupation. For about a week we lived in the village house with four more people and three cats. We were hiding in the basement almost every night because of the heavy explosions and loud whistling noises. After the oil base in Vasylkiv was blown up about 10-15 kilometers away, we started to make an evacuation plan to the Western part of the country. I can remember my mom sitting on the couch and holding a physical map, because of the lack of internet connection, in search for a safe way, as hostilities were already being fought on the usual roads. Our way took 4 days, instead of the usual 10 hours for such a route. We spent the nights at apartments of friends and were looking for gasoline. The next two weeks we were living in a tourist town in the Carpathian mountains, creating a strategy and searching for a possibility to go to Europe. My mom refused to go, because her job is strongly attached to Ukraine.
Me and my friend Dayana took a bus from Ukraine to Poland and then a free evacuation train from Krakow to Berlin. The train stopped on the border, and we were asked to get out. Then the crowd turned into a queue, and we saw buses, which were leaving from the border point one by one heading in an unknown direction. Then, perhaps for the first time, I truly and deeply realized the terribleness of the situation. People with kids and pets didn’t even ask where the buses were going – they were just looking for a safe place. But our friends were waiting for me and Dayana in Berlin. We were lucky enough for the bus to pass the city. So we just asked to get our luggage and got out. In the general sense of help and sympathy I’m extremely grateful to the Polish and German people for creating a real salvation system for those who need it.

A: Why Berlin? 

M: Several of my good friends and colleagues have already reached Berlin. So I thought it would be nice to have a chance to recreate a like-minded environment with less emotional effort. I knew that once I’ll get to another city with my background, my plan of building a new connection will be tricky due to emotional acclimatization. Probably, we – meaning Ukraine’s creative youth – subconsciously felt that Berlin is a beautiful and free place.

Coat and dress AKRIS

A: What did you do in Ukraine? 

M: I’m a dancer. And I’m only 19 years old. So, in Ukraine I was at the very beginning of my artistic, executive journey, also separating from my parents. I started to film for music videos and develop my own movement when I was in 11th grade. Then I’ve had arguments with my family regarding the question of university. Long story short, I lived my wonderful youth, full of enthusiasm, protest, and love.

A: What are you doing now?

M: I am searching and trying. I am regaining and rebuilding. I am still recovering even though it is almost impossible.

A: Where do you go to find hope?

M: I actually don’t remember what the process of finding hope is. I treat it like a skill since I’ve started to swim against the current. Hoping is like a weak version of confidence for me, in my opinion it is pretty accessible to bring up in oneself. So, I just do it.

A: What smell has home?

M: Iʼve changed places four times since I moved to Berlin – I have met amazing people to whom I am infinitely grateful. But my physical home is my mother’s place in Kyiv. In summer it always smells of renovation, regardless of it being finished already 7 years ago. It also has a smell of fresh air, like a closed indoor sky. But the concept of home has expanded and at the same time the need for it has increased. So now my home has a smell of my skin. And my body is my bedroom and temple. The only thing that stays with me literally all the time.

A: The smell of Berlin?

M: Weed.

A: The one piece of clothes that you (brought with you and) would never give away?

M: My blue winter jacket, which I bought in a thrift store in Kyiv for 150 hrivnas (≈4 euros). It is an item which accompanied me all the way from Kyiv to Berlin and helped with the cold.

A: What do we still not understand about Ukrainians?

M: The most unfortunate thing is that we are strongly associated with Russia – after a century of oppression from the Russian Empire and then the USSR, but we are not the same people. We have our own identity and now we are fighting for it, for the right to be Ukrainians, which Russia denies. Ukraine is not Russia, and our people are not fraternal, because fraternity cannot be based on destruction and enslavement. I feel like it is still not clear that the war, which Russia launched to my country, is not civil. It’s rapacious.

A: What is your favorite word in Ukrainian and what does it mean?

M: Itʼs спрага, which means thirst.

A: Your wish for the future?

M: I wish that all people will finally act out of love.