Peterborough Woman Living And Working In Ukraine Now Safe In Ireland Reflects On The Beauty of Kyiv And Worries About The Country She Called Home

Born and raised in Peterborough, Ciara Shaughnessy was living and working in Kyiv, Ukraine until the threat of a Russian invasion led her and her husband to find safety in Ireland just weeks before Russia’s first attack.

Ciara and her husband in front of the National Opera House in Kyiv, across from their apartment. Ciara is wearing a Vyshvanka, a traditional Ukrainian dress known for it’s embroidery. Photo courtesy of Ciara Shaugnessy.

Shaughnessy, a teacher who has lived and worked in countries like the United Arab Emirates and Japan, moved to Ukraine to work and build a life in July 2021.

Together, she and her husband lived in the Golden Gate neighbourhood. This was the main gate in the 11th-century fortifications of Kyiv, the capital of Kievan Rus.

“I had the privilege of experiencing what it was like to live in beautiful Kyiv,” said Shaughnessy. “It’s a city full of culture and amazing restaurants, music and generosity. There are buskers in the streets at any moment, in any sort of weather. The parks come alive, there are lovely string lights everywhere. It’s just a really romantic place.”

Ukraine’s Independence Monument in central Kyiv at sunrise one day before Vladimir Putin gave the order for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images.

While living in Kyiv, Shaughnessy discovered through a regular check-up that she had thyroid cancer.

“Part of a routine checkup in Ukraine is a thyroid scan. These haven’t been part of regular checkups I’ve had before - including any in Canada,” she said. “It was just a regular checkup and they found a nodule. After a biopsy, we found out it was a tumour.”

She credits Ukrainian doctors with saving her life.

“They literally saved my life. I received the treatment I needed and then in three weeks I had to evacuate,” explained Shaughnessy. “If I didn't move to Ukraine, I don’t think the cancer would have been found. I worry about the people who helped me receive the treatment and care I needed.”

She received radioactive iodine treatment in Kyiv in December and is now cancer-free.

Shaughnessy says that to her knowledge much of the medical team that helped her through her diagnosis are still in Kyiv. 

Emergency personnel amid building debris from a missile strike in the Lobanovsky district on Feb. 26, 2022, in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo by Laurent Van Der Stockt, Getty Images News, Getty Images.

Shaughnessy and her husband, who is from Ireland, learned about the Russian troops surrounding the Ukrainian borders and decided on Jan. 26 that it may be in their best interest to leave Ukraine and fly to Ireland.

On Feb. 24, Russia launched their invasion of Ukraine, including Ukraine's capital Kyiv, where many of Shaughnessy’s friends, colleagues and students still lived.

“We may have been some of the first ex-pats to leave. Many might have thought that we were jumping the gun,” she said. “No one thought that war could come to Kyiv or any of the major cities - even though we had been seeing troops build up around the border and it was unnerving. Everyone believed that the West or NATO would step in before it came to this.”

When they left she continued to teach online and initially assumed this would last a month or so.

Every day, although she is now safe, she still gets alerts of incoming air raids and warnings to her cell phone telling her to enter a bomb shelter and she worries for her colleagues and friends still in Kyiv.

“It’s terrifying. My Ukrainian colleagues who didn’t or couldn’t leave are sleeping in bomb shelters and underground metro stations. Their children are sleeping in the kind of condition you couldn’t imagine,” she said. “Russian forces are killing children. They fired at the main television tower in Kyiv and the city’s main Holocaust memorial. This is a 15-minute drive from our home. I don’t have to experience this terror first hand. I can feel this anxiety now and tell you how horrible it is but I have not been in the shoes of the Ukrainians who are experiencing this now with babies and with husbands who are fighting. They’re prepared to lose their lives because they love their country.”

Shaughnessy says while the Ukrainian people are resilient, they need backing from the rest of the world to restore peace in their country. She suggests a direct donation to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). NBU has decided to open a special fundraising account to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“I have friends with cuts on their hands from making Molotov Cocktails in order to defend themselves, friends that need to take sleeping pills to get an hour of sleep. I’m trying to live with the fact that I was privileged enough to leave, and my friends might die, their children might die. It’s not right,” said Shaughnessy. “This is a gorgeous city that I was planning a life in. It was very safe walking through the streets every day. We’d go to cafes, bazaars and parks - it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I look at the streets now after the invasion. This city is suffering.”

She does not know when but Shaughnessy hopes to be able to return to Kyiv and help the Ukrainians rebuild their lives.

“Ukrainians truly live in the moment and I am often in awe of that. As Canadians, I feel like we’re always planning our futures - fixing the house or saving for retirement,” said Shaughnessy “Ukrainians, perhaps due to their history and the threat of yet another Russian invasion, are forced to seize the day. Walking in the street you notice how alive, joyful and in the moment these people are - just being with their friends or partners. It’s the most beautiful thing you could ever imagine. These people are incredibly important to me.”

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