Ukrainian author's heartfelt plea after finding new home in Galway village

‘Every night, I go to sleep knowing that my mother in Kyiv could be killed before morning’

Published 29th Aug 2026, 10:23 BST Polina Bashkina at home in Kinvara | Local ‘Every night, I go to sleep knowing that my mother in Kyiv could be killed before morning’ Sign up to our Connacht Tribune Today daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Connacht Tribune within your account.

Ukrainian author and journalist Polina Bashkina fears the horrors of Russia's invasion are being forgotten, while every night she goes to sleep wondering whether her mother in Kyiv will still be alive the following morning.

Recently, the windows of Polina's apartment in Kyiv were blown out in an explosion – another reminder of the danger faced by her family and the life she left behind – when she fled to Ireland with her young son in March 2022.

“Lucky because, so far, everyone in our family is still alive.

“But every night, I go to sleep knowing that my mother in Kyiv could be killed before morning – just as thousands of other Ukrainian mothers, husbands, wives and children have already been killed.”

As Ukraine marked the 35th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union this week, Polina's message to those watching the war from afar is simple: do not forget.

“Day and night, Russia sends missiles and drones into Ukrainian cities. Schools. Nurseries. Playgrounds. Supermarkets. Ordinary apartment buildings. Ordinary people living ordinary lives.

“People are being killed in their homes and on their streets as though they were being hunted.”

Polina's son Platon was just six years old when Russia launched its invasion on February 24, 2022.

He is now eleven, and the pair live outside Kinvara with Polina's partner, Pete Duffy.

Before the war, Polina had built a successful career in Ukraine, working in business, political PR and marketing.

Still in Kyiv...Polina's mother Nataliya Izhevska | Local She headed the press service of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine and also worked in the country's Presidential Administration before becoming an author.

At the end of 2021, just months before the invasion, her book '12 Months. A Year of Sense' was published.

Polina recalls missiles flying overhead and the fear that their home could be hit.

She, her mother Nataliya Izhevska and six-year-old Platon spent the first two nights of the war in a field in freezing temperatures – three generations too afraid to remain inside their home for fear they could be buried beneath the rubble if it was struck.

The third night was spent in a cellar measuring just two metres by two metres.

Within days, Polina faced the decision to leave with her son, while Nataliya remained in Ukraine.

Polina and Platon arrived in Ireland on March 7, 2022 and spent some time in Gort before moving close to Kinvara.

With Nataliya - who is in her seventies - still living in Kyiv, the war has never felt far away.

While the recent explosion, which blew out the windows of Polina's Kyiv apartment is one reminder, what her mother endured during Ukraine's bitter winter is another.

“Last winter was exceptionally cold, with temperatures falling as low as minus 25 degrees,” she says.

“Ukrainians – including my own mother – spent periods living in freezing flats without adequate heating and electricity.

Polina as a small child with her mother Nataliya | Local “My mother sat inside her home wearing two hats and three coats, with windows that had been blown out in an explosion not long beforehand.

“Russia attacked power stations, electrical substations, generating facilities and district-heating infrastructure – the very systems Ukrainians rely on for electricity and heat – leaving people with fewer and fewer ways to keep their homes warm.”

Polina says Ukrainians began using the term “Kholodomor” – meaning “death by cold” – to describe what was happening.

“And we are being warned that the coming winter could be even harsher,” she says.

For Polina, the consequences of war are also felt in the ordinary moments.

“Life has been so difficult over the past few years,” she says.

“I was a single mother from the beginning, and then the war happened, and it struck me that my mother and I don’t have a single proper photograph together.

Read More Buyer wanted to reopen Galway pub after 12 years at €200,000 Truck driver blocks off Galway motorway after seeing car 'driving wrong way' Galway bishop asks priest to step down as gardai investigate historical abuse allegations “And now the war has separated us, and we simply don’t have the opportunity to take that photograph.

“Treasure the fact that you can still be close to the people you love. Call them. Visit them. Spend time with them – if you are lucky enough not to have a war separating you, as it has separated us.”

“What can actually help is refusing to look away,” she says.

“Keep reading about Ukraine. Keep talking about Ukraine. And, if you can, donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”