'I just want him to be alive': Ukrainian mothers on Sherkin Island plead for end to Ukraine war
Svitlana Babak at the Sherkin House Ukrainian Centre where she shared memories of her son Oleksandr who was killed in battle last February. Picture: Sorcha Sweeney
For Svitlana Babak February 15 was a day like any other… until a phone call alerted her to the tragic news: “Your son has been killed by Russian forces.” Months on, she speaks through broken sobs as a translator tells her story.
Living in the former Sherkin Island hotel - 2,000 miles away from her native Kharkiv - Svitlana is now the most homesick she has ever been. Her dream of returning to a safe Ukraine and having her whole family reunited has been crushed now that Oleksandr, the son who stayed behind to fight, will not be there to greet her.
