Paris Paralympics 2024: Ukrainian orphans’ joyful reunion with 'second mother' sparks emotional scenes

Ukrainian rescuers help an injured woman to leave the site of a missile attack in Kharkiv (Pic: AFP)

One of the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been to scatter Ukrainians all over the world, separating families and friends.

But the Paris Paralympics 2024 produced one emotional reunion of a teacher and two orphans.

Badminton duo Oksana Kozyna and Oleksandr Chyrkov left Dnipro soon after the invasion in February 2022, finding sanctuary in France. Svitlana Shabalina, the teacher whose kindness in bringing them much needed food to school and sparked the two of them to take up para sports, left for Sweden earlier this year.

Both were not orphans in the strictest sense. Kozyna was born without a fibula in one leg and her parents felt they could not afford to care for her, although they were reunited with her aged 15. Chyrkov was hit by a car and seriously injured at the age of eight. His mother visited him just twice in the two years he was in hospital and then abandoned him so he ended up in the orphanage, which catered for between 60 and 70 disabled children.

Badminton team coach Dmytro Zozulya said he was astonished by the state of the orphanage when he went there to try and recruit children when badminton was admitted as a Paralympic sport for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

"When I went to that place, I was shocked," he said on Sunday. "It's such a dirty place, so stinky. I'm like, oh my God." Amid both the personal angst and the misery of the orphanage, the kindness and thoughtfulness of Shabalina -- who taught crafts at a school affiliated to the orphanage -- made her a "second mother' to Kozyna. "I was their teacher, but I cared for them because they were orphans," Shabalina said, speaking through an interpreter.

"So when they come to me, I would do things for them. Like I would give Oleksandr food. "I did have, like, favourite pupils. So they were two of them. "So I just loved it and I loved what I did. And they were my kids, because I really think they are like my kids."

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There are four children from that time competing in Paris and Shabalina's eyes twinkle as she thinks of how they have succeeded despite the trauma of their own circumstances and then the ravages of war. Kozyna made history by becoming the first Ukrainian para badminton world champion in 2022 while Chyrkov, 28, won a silver medal at the European championships last year. "I feel a lot of emotions, really a lot," she said. "I'm so excited and I'm so proud of them."

She recalls them both being leaders at the school. "Sasha (Chyrkov) was a leader," she said. "He organised everything like a sports team. "He was always in charge. He gathered people around him. "Oksana was also trying to gather kids around her. They were like competitors already from this age." Kozyna, who reached the semi-finals, and Chyrkov, who went out in the pool stage, is all that remains of around 20 para badminton players who Zagulya had under his wing.

"Some go out of the country, some move to another region, because (the war) is so scary. Very, very scary," said Zagulya. "The first time it was... I never cried, but I started to cry every day when it happened, because I have three young children."

Suddenly, she explained, you have to "stop working, you cannot buy food, it's impossible, you have car, but you cannot buy gas (fuel), it's impossible". "Children cannot go to school, and we don't have bomb shelters, you have to stay at your home, and of course everyone is shocked, like panic. "It's like apocalypse, tsunami."

Thus Kozyna, Chyrkov and Zagulya, along with his family, now live in northern France, made possible by Christophe Guillerme, who answered the coach's plea for help via a France-based mutual Ukrainian acquaintance. "We got them out of Ukraine, and then we managed to organise three or four training sessions per week," said Guillerme, who also persuaded companies to finance their housing costs.

"They had to get points for this target that was Paris 2024, so we financed them to go to Canada, to go to Ireland, to play tournaments again, and to be able to score points for the race to Paris."

They succeeded in achieving that, paving the way for the emotional reunion. However, Kozyna, 29, had not seen Shabalina for "approximately four years" and her presence in Paris clearly threw her. "At first I didn't recognise her, but when I did, I just couldn't believe it. It's like a dream."

(With AFP inputs)