Kristina, refugee, happy to experience some normality in Milan

After losing everything in March for the second time in eight years, Kristina Rossoshanska, 20-year-old Ukrainian, is happy today to be able to experience some stability in Milan, welcomed as a visiting student by Bocconi, part of the university's initiative to host refugees. A native of Luhansk, Kristina first saw the arrival of the Russian army in 2014, at age 12, with the launch of the offensive that would later see the region occupied by the Russians and declared the Luhansk People's Republic.

"My parents understood that the situation could worsen, so they put my sister and I on a train to Kyiv. I had to leave my hometown and have never been able to return. I was small and it was hard to feel so unsafe for the first time," Kristina says.

After two months her parents also arrived and the family settled into their new life in Kyiv. Kristina finished her school studies and in 2019 enrolled in the faculty of International Relations at Kyiv University. Happy in this new experience, Kristina however saw her life overturned once again in late February this year when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

"In the previous months, when an attack was threatened, I was convinced that nothing would happen. At most a new war in the occupied territories. Instead the war soon came to Kyiv as well - and it was terrible," Kristina says. "I lived near the airport, which was one of the most battered targets. In those weeks we didn't sleep and often went to shelters, alerted by an app on our phones. People stocked up, and in the supermarkets you couldn't find anything. And Putin said he wanted to take Kyiv quickly - I was so afraid."

And so her parents decided it was safer to relocate their children once again. On March 4, Kristina found herself once again on a train with her sister, this time bound for Austria. "After eight years I found myself again escaping a war, saying goodbye to my parents, and with all that uncertainty about my future. It was hard," Kristina says. "I am thankful that we found hospitality with a very kind family. But in the meantime I was reading the news coming from back home, so worrying, and on the app the calls to go to the shelters kept ringing."

In August her sister returned to Kyiv for some paperwork related to her studies, and Kristina had to think about her next steps. "I had Ukrainian friends in Bocconi who had told me good things about it and then I learned about the program to take in refugees. I applied and got great help from the staff with all my documents."

And so Kristina arrived at Bocconi, one of four Ukrainian students welcomed in recent months, with the goal of enabling them to continue their studies and not abandon the university experience, as visiting students for the 22/23 academic year - with fees, meals and accommodations paid by the university. As a visiting student, Kristina will follow about 10 courses from the Bocconi curriculum this year, taking exams at the end, which will then be acknowledged by her university in Kyiv.

"I am so grateful for this opportunity and the support I received. In all this uncertainty it so nice to still be able to pursue my studies. In Kyiv today, university is all online - here it is so nice instead to do everything in person and be able to socialize with classmates. I hope then to be able to graduate in Kyiv and that, one day, my future will be in Ukraine again..."