PARIS (Reuters) – Weeks after fleeing Kyiv with their mom and arriving in Paris, 15-year-old twins Masha and Sasha Litkovska have already began excessive school in the French capital and are cramming to get to grips with the language.
They are amongst almost 90 Ukrainians who’ve transferred to excessive faculties in Paris and the remainder of the Ile-de-France area in current weeks.
There are 700 spots accessible in the Ile-de-France for overseas college students in want and most of them this yr are anticipated to be allotted to individuals fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, in accordance to Christophe Kerrero, Paris’s chief tutorial officer.
So far, the ladies have spent most of their time in a French as a second language class, the place they’re being helped by two different college students, initially from Russia and Kazakhstan, who translate for them.
“The goal – since these two college students are actually inexperienced persons in the French language – is to get them to grasp the language as quickly as potential, to allow them to pursue their research in France in the event that they keep,” stated their instructor Sarah Czarnobroda.
While the twins are adapting to their new life, they continue to be anxious about their father, a police officer, who has stayed at house in Kyiv to struggle.
“We are very anxious about our father,” Sasha stated. “Even although we’re protected now, we’re nonetheless very anxious about Ukraine, as a result of you do not know in case your family members are alive. When you’ll be able to’t attain them over the telephone, you begin considering one thing went unsuitable.”
Moscow calls its motion in Ukraine a “particular operation”.
The twins and their mom travelled by means of Slovakia earlier than arriving in Paris on March 5 and are staying at an residence in the southwest of the French capital that belongs to a pal of their mom.
Masha stated she appreciated their new school and the ladies had already made some associates.
“I’m completely satisfied that I’m not in Kyiv, and never in Ukraine … and am not interested by whether or not I’ll make it to tomorrow morning,” she stated.
(Reporting by Yiming Woo; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Susan Fenton)
