An uncertain future for Ukraine's young acrobats and circus artists
Published on Feb 16, 2023 05:06 PM IST
It has been nearly a year since the Russia-Ukraine war began and thousands of lives have been lost, many out of fear seek refuge in the bordering states of Ukraine. Amid the bombs and terror of Russia’s invasion, more than 100 young circus performers still hold intensive daily training sessions in Budapest while waiting to see what an uncertain future holds. The group, whose members are between the ages of 5 and 20, found a home with the Capital Circus of Budapest after leaving their circus schools and lives behind in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, says an AP report by Justin Spike.
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Published on Feb 16, 2023 05:06 PM IST
A young Ukrainian refugee circus student dangles from aerial silks in a training room in Budapest, Hungary, on February 13. More than 100 Ukrainian refugee circus students, between the ages of 5 and 20, found a home with the Capital Circus of Budapest after escaping the embattled cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv amid Russian bombings.(Denes Erdos / AP)
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A group of young Ukrainian refugee circus students seen practicing in a training room in Budapest, Hungary, on February 13. Performers still hold intensive daily training sessions in Budapest while waiting to see what an uncertain future holds.(Denes Erdos / AP)
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A Ukrainian refugee circus student practices juggling in a training room in Budapest, Hungary. Capital Circus of Budapest director Peter Fekete told AP, "If we provide an opportunity to train, and if we set goals that we want to achieve through opportunities to perform, then in their everyday lives they won’t be focused only on the difficult situation they are in, but artistic performance can fill their lives to some degree,”(Denes Erdos / AP)
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A group of young Ukrainian refugee circus students seen stretching in a training room. As Russia tries to ramp up an offensive in Eastern Ukraine and bolster its hold on other parts of the country, it remains unclear when the performers can return safely to their homes.(Denes Erdos / AP)
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Ukrainian refugee circus trainer Svetlana Momot gives instructions to her students in a training room. Momot, fled Kharkiv with an initial group of 12 of her students last year, Momot told AP, “What I see is that we live as one family and as a creative team and I think it hasn’t affected their training, and I try to keep them in the form they were in Ukraine.”(Denes Erdos / AP)
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A group of young Ukrainian refugee circus students eat together before the start of their training. Svetlana Momot, the trainer told AP that in the past year, the performers had to learn to live, cook, clean and study together in close quarters but her goal from the beginning was to ensure that, despite being uprooted from their homes, their intensive daily training would not be interrupted.(Denes Erdos / AP)
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A group of young Ukrainian refugee circus students walk towards their training facility. While some of the performers plan to eventually join family members who have settled in countries like Germany and Slovakia, almost all of them want to return to Ukraine whenever the war ends, Momot told AP. (Denes Erdos / AP)
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Ukrainian refugee circus student twins Anna and Mariia Lysytska travel together on a subway to their training facility in Budapest. Anna Lysytska, a 14-year-old acrobat, told AP that it had been difficult at first to adapt to life in Hungary after fleeing her home in Kharkiv but staying focused on her training had helped ease the transition. Lysytska’s twin sister, Mariia told AP what she liked most about Hungary at first was that “there were no explosions,"(Denes Erdos / AP )
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