Ukrainian woman married in Kashmir worried for kin in Kharkiv

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, March 6

Olesia Mazur, a Ukrainian national, is worried as her parents and granny are stuck in war-torn Ukraine. The 35-year-old, who married a Kashmiri man and stepped into a different culture and society, says, “It was a conscious decision to marry a Kashmiri because everything about the Valley would excite me.”

Mazur says she is in deep pain because her grandmother and parents are stuck in Kharkiv which is facing Russian bombing.

“It’s more painful because I am not with them. I wish I were there. Now, I can only hope and pray for their safety,” Mazur tells The Tribune.

She says the world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, should intervene to stop the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Ukraine. “Russia is conducting a genocide in Ukraine,” she said.

According to her, she is having nightmares and she gets up and starts crying. Sporting a purple headscarf, Mazur spends her time praying and checking social media to stay updated about the Ukraine situation. “I remain on phone all the day with my parents to cheer them up and give them hope to live through these hard times,” she says.

Mazur is married to a businessman, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, of Mindoora village in south Kashmir’s sub-district Tral after she visited India as a tourist with her mother.

The couple met in Goa and a few years of courtship eventually translated into a marriage.

It’s painful

I am not with them (parents) and it’s more painful. Olesia Mazur, married in valley