Maria Kolomiiets (Masha Kapusta) and Serhii Bilozerov lived in Kharkiv before the full-scale invasion. They had their own art and theater studio «Cauliflower» and created cultural projects. The war forced Maria and her daughters to move to Poland, and later, Serhii joined them.
They continued their activities in Poland. They are volunteers, activists, and creators of the children’s choir. During the floods that hit Poland in the fall, they actively helped the victims. Besides all of this, they are making plans for the future. A lot of plans.
UAinKrakow.pl talked to Maria and Serhii and found out how they create projects for Ukrainian children, why they are involved in helping Poland, and why they think mutual understanding and cooperation between cultures is essential.
«In Poland, we were supposed to spend the night and move on. But it warmed us up.»
Mariia says they lived in Kharkiv before the war and had a busy, creative, happy life. They worked with children and were involved in cultural projects. On February 24, 2022, they had to leave Ukraine.
«With three children, we left our home and went to Kyiv region. We thought it would be safer there. It wasn’t. So we went to a village in the Ternopil region. We were getting further and further away from home. We didn’t want to leave, but it was dangerous to return to Kharkiv. We didn’t know what to do next at all. We sat and waited. But we had to make a decision.
My friends from Munich wrote to me. They invited me to their place and said they would help me find a job and settle down. There is a large and active Ukrainian diaspora there, so I could work in my field. I realized that this could be an option. We decided to go there, even though it was scary and far from Ukraine. We went through Poland.
In Wroclaw, we were supposed to spend the night alone. It was a rest stop. We had friends here. Among them was a Pole, Aleksander Olszewski, who had been writing to me since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He was ready to help us. So I replied that we were leaving and needed a place to spend the night. He gladly accepted us. He helped us a lot. In general, Wroclaw received us very well. Wroclaw reminded me of Lviv in some ways and Kharkiv in others. The streets were familiar, and the language was familiar. It was warming at that terrible time. We stayed longer.
I remember feeling the tension like a string being stretched. This feeling started when we crossed the Ukrainian border. I really didn’t want to leave Ukraine. The thought of traveling even further and crossing another border (even though it was a conditional one, but another country that was even further away from home) was indescribably painful. It seemed that I wouldn`t be able to stand it and would break down.
I decided to pause in my reflections and hesitations, to stay here and think about what to do next. And then I got sick. Apparently, my body also wanted a break. Together, we thought it over and decided to stay. Something kept us here. That’s how we chose Wroclaw — or it chose us.
My older daughters didn’t adapt well to Poland. They didn`t deal with it. They stayed here for a year and returned to Ukraine. As soon as the eldest turned 18, she said she was returning to Kharkiv. The middle one went to Ukraine six months after the eldest. They have a warm relationship and a strong sisterly connection.
My youngest daughter is 14. She is here with me. It was difficult for her to adapt, especially after her sisters left. But now the situation is better. She has friends. Unfortunately, it’s not very easy to integrate because she goes to a Ukrainian school and has friends who are Ukrainians like she is».
«I felt I should do something. Right now»
Maria quickly began to integrate into the Ukrainian community in Wroclaw because she wanted to be helpful.
«I almost immediately began to integrate into the Ukrainian community here. Our close friend Anna Zyubina, also from Kharkiv, started her foundation and organized charity music performances. I have organizational experience, so I started to help her with this. Later, we received a request to gather Ukrainian children who came to Wroclaw because of the war and unite them into a choir.
I am an artist by profession, not a singer. But I accepted the challenge. I jumped at this opportunity and started gathering children. I would never have thought of it before. I was never involved in a choir in the past, but the war changed a lot.
I recalled all my musical knowledge, watched master classes on YouTube, and prepared. That’s how our choir lessons began. We gathered a choir out of literally nothing in a month, found musicians, and prepared a program. I had a feeling that I needed this activity. The children also needed it. Then, the choir united us and, I can say, saved us. This is our piece of home. Here, we warm up our souls — me, the kids, and their parents.
In June 2022, we held a concert at the Wroclaw Festival on Rynok Square. We sang two folk songs: a Ukrainian and a Polish one. The children were delighted. We performed very well. We received a huge ovation. It inspired us».
Serhiy spent the first two weeks of the full-scale invasion in Kharkiv. Then, he was volunteering in Vinnytsia. In the fall of 2022, he returned to Kharkiv. In February 2023, as part of the «Magical Ukrainian Tour» project, Serhii joined Mariia in Wroclaw with a team of musicians. He says that leaving Kharkiv was very difficult. This city is his soul, and the war forced him to make a difficult choice. Now, he is actively involved in volunteer work and, together with Mariia, creates multicultural projects in Wroclaw.
«We have big plans – we want to do several tours. The first one is a European gratitude tour. We want to thank the Europeans for their support. We have already been to Lithuania. We had several concerts there and even sang for the president. We hope to get to Paul McCartney on this tour and sing our version of the legendary Beatles song „Yellow Submarine” with him. Our version is called „Blue-yellow submarine”. The second is a comeback tour. After Ukraine’s victory, we really want to go with our program to all the towns where each child of our choir comes from. This tour should end in Kharkiv. We called this plan the «Magical Ukrainian Tour» ».
Maria and Serhii are actively involved in multicultural projects. For example, in early November, they performed the musical «Difference + Similarity = Friendship», which aimed to unite three cultures: Ukrainian, Polish, and Belarusian.
Maria says that they had been working on this project for several months.
«Our entire «KapustaBand» choir participated in the performance, and the actors were Ukrainian, Polish, and Belarusian children. The play was performed in three languages. Some characters spoke Ukrainian, some spoke Belarusian, and some spoke Polish. The idea was to show that if we want to, we can understand each other, even if we have different native languages and cultures. This was our experiment. I think it was successful. I really want to show this play to a larger audience».
Another mportant event for Maria, Serhiy, and their choir was participating in a concert by the Ukrainian band Dakha Brakha. At the concert on November 19, 2024, in Wroclaw, the choir and the band members performed a song.
How Maria and Serhii helped during the flood
Maria says that when the news of the flood came out in September, they immediately watched the TV show «Wielka Woda» about the flooding of Wroclaw in 1997. This story impressed them.
«Residents of Wroclaw talked a lot about the flood. Everywhere: on the streets, in lines in stores, in schools. Of course, it affected us. We live here. Now, in a sense, it is also our home. The streets we walk down are now ours, too. So, there was no question of whether to help or not.
Realizing the seriousness of the consequences, we couldn`t help but react to the news about the possibility of a repeat of the 1997 tragedy. The news was very disturbing: they predicted an even worse flood. We registered on a volunteer website, but we didn’t receive any letters or calls, so we started looking for opportunities on social media. We wanted to help, and there were a lot of people like us.
Let me give you an example of a zoo. The zoo’s website posted an announcement about the need for volunteers. An hour after the news was published, they wrote on the website that they didn`t need more people. Several times we didn’t have time to get there. The need was filled incredibly quickly. Many people responded immediately.
We joined various volunteer chats to find where we could be useful. People started gathering to make fortifications out of plastic bags on Tumsky Island. The biggest wave was expected there. It is an important part of the city. Most of Wroclaw’s historical and cultural heritage is located there. So we joined the process of fortifying this island».
Serhii adds that there was an incredible unity of people in Wroclaw at the time. Unity in the face of the elements.
«There were a lot of people on Tumski Island in those days. There were so many that it looked like an anthill. A huge number of people, and everyone was doing something. Dump trucks brought sand, and people shoveled it and passed it from hand to hand. Long chains of people. People of all kinds: sellers, grandparents, nuns, children… Everyone. A big anthill of people, in which each person is essential. There were also many Ukrainians there. It was clear from the language. Then, there was information that there were about 3,000 people on that island.
The self-organization of people was impressive. One Ukrainian friend of ours, Dasha Kasyanova, the mother of one of our choir members, heard that soldiers were coming to build fortifications near Wroclaw, where there were also dangerous areas. She decided to bring food to these soldiers. She raised money, bought food, made sandwiches, and took them. She didn’t ask if they needed help.
Someone said to her: «Why are you doing this? There are organizations that do this». But she just packed up and went without asking why. Many people did that back then. Such examples are impressive».
Later, Maria and Serhii went to Klodzko, a city badly affected by the flood at the time. Serhii shared that they saw a horrific scene there.
«The water brought a lot of harm there. People had a life, and then it was swept away by a big wave. When we arrived in the city, we saw a bridge uprooted, the river bank completely washed away, trees down, asphalt inside out. It looked like an apocalypse. It was horrible… We have a war in our country, and here is a flood. It’s all a nightmare that we are actually living in. I still have a picture in my head of what I saw there: a children’s playground that was fenced with a net. One of the nets was blown away by a stream of water and bent. And on it hung everything that the wave had carried: grasses, branches, some rags. It looked scary. I was also impressed by the mountains of garbage that had been someone’s life before».
Maria and Serhii came to Klodzko together with the Ukrainian volunteer foundation «Ptakh». The organization had announced a trip to this region and was gathering volunteers to clean up the damage caused by the flood. Mariia says that they were given special suits and all the necessary equipment. Their task was to clean the entrances and basements of the houses that had been flooded.
«There were huge hills of stuff swept out of the apartments in the yards. The first floors of the houses were thoroughly washed away. It was as if it had taken everything inside. It is not clear whether it is possible to restore it. The basements are a nightmare: silt, clay, and dirt. The storm turned it into a huge mess. People are broken. Their lives are broken. I still remember their eyes.
Now, we are focused on our trouble – the war, so we understand their pain. I hope we helped to improve the situation at least a little bit. I didn’t expect people to thank me. I don’t need it. God help them to survive this terrible period. It is enough for me to know that I did what I could.
The experience of our misfortune should make us more human. Helping those who suffer tragedy is a sign of humanity. «My house is on the edge, I know nothing» does not work. This is no way to live. The assistance issue should not be raised as «the Poles helped us, now we will help them». No. When people are in trouble, it doesn’t matter who they are or who we are. We are all human beings, right? Let’s be them».
You can also read this article in Ukrainian
This publication was prepared with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the editors of UAinKrakow.pl and can in no way be considered to reflect the views of UNHCR. For more information about UNHCR and the aid available in Poland: https://help.unhcr.org/poland/uk/
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