'I know my son will be safe here' – life as a Ukrainian refugee in an Inverness hotel
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For the past nine months, home for Halyna Toran and her husband and toddler son has been an Inverness hotel room.
The violinist is among the Ukrainian refugees who fled their homeland after Russian tanks swept across the border and fighter jets rained down deadly missiles in February 2022.
In the 16 months since, thousands have died, millions have been displaced and homes, public services and buildings destroyed.
Halyna and her husband, Mehmet Ali, who are among the many caught up in the human cost of the conflict, are living in the Craigmonie Hotel with their two-year-old son Emir.
The 40-bedroom hotel, owned by Compass Hospitality, was taken over last September as part of a Scottish Government scheme to welcome Ukrainian refugees.
Before the war, Halyna taught violin in a music college and played in various orchestras as well as owning two baby stores in Cherkassy, a city with a population of about 300,000, by the Dnipro River in central Ukraine.
“Now, I don’t have anything,” she shrugged.
She and her husband, a Turkish citizen, left the city with their young son two weeks after the 2022 invasion when fuel supplies were beginning to get low.
They left behind their 20-year-old son with her mother and grandmother – although he could have accompanied Halyna as she has multiple sclerosis.
“My heart is torn in half,” she reflected.
It is the second time in her life she has been displaced. As a child, she and her family fled Moldova and moved to Ukraine due to conflict with Russia.
As a refugee again, she has found a warm welcome in Inverness and support from the charity, Highlands for Ukraine.
“When I was young, I read a lot of magazines about nature and world geography and I also read about the Loch Ness Monster,” she said.
“I have now been to Loch Ness but I have only seen water!
“I really love Inverness. I know my son will be safe.
“I would be happy to live here the rest of my life, if it was possible.”
Hotel living means she does not have a kitchen and it is difficult for mothers with young children. But a big problem is not being able to access classes to improve her English as there is no help with childcare.
“I could do so many things with my music knowledge and I could teach many children if I could speak English well,” she said.
Her thoughts are occupied by the family she has left behind: “Every day, I live and sleep with the telephone. I see the news about what is happening. It is very hard.
“They don’t have money. They don’t have food. They don’t have medicines – my grandmother cannot live without medicines.”
She says her husband works hard making pizzas to help the family.
As well as helping with Ukrainian aid efforts in Inverness, she also got involved in the relief effort following February’s earthquake in Turkey.
Halyna warns there is now an added sense of urgency to get aid to Ukraine following the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam by Russians which has already had disastrous consequences for tens of thousands of residents and is set to have a wider long-lasting impact.
* More about Ukrainian refugees uprooted from their homeland online tomorrow at 7.30pm.
