No country for Azov Greeks

Fleeing from the war-torn Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, Afina Khadzynova is trying to reconnect to her Greek roots in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The ethnic Greek community has been in Mariupol since the 18th Century. Up until February of this year the city's Greeks had a vibrant cultural life, celebrating their language, traditions and religious rites, brutally cut short by the Russian invasion. Within weeks traditional Greek settlements were levelled and the city itself was besieged, leaving civilians to shelter in their basements without food, water, heat or mobile connection.

Afina and her mother Olympiada managed to escape after two weeks under siege, yet her brother and nieces still remain in the occupied city. She began communicating with reporter Natalia Golysheva Deis, sending voice notes that reflect her life in the city, and her transformation into a refugee. A self-proclaimed non-believer, when the war came she started to pray to an old Greek icon to shield her from shelling. Now in Cyprus, she meets Natalia Deis around orthodox Easter as she settles into her new life away from her beloved home.

Producer/presnter: Natalia Golysheva Deis
A Whistledown production for BBC World Service

Title song "Iнша Весна"/Another Spring, courtesy of Vitaly Kozlovsky and team

(Photo: Azov Greeks' cultural festival Megha Yurty in Mariupol, 2021. Credit: Mariupol Rada)