Alyona Yaseneva is 39 years old, a mother of three sons and a painter. She is also the daughter of the renowned Ukrainian painter Oleg Yasenev, and the wife of Valery Stratyuk, 53, also a painter. Today they all live and work in Rimavská Sobota, a town of 22,000 in southern Slovakia.
Alyona and her husband arrived three weeks after the outbreak of the war in February 2022. Her father arrived later. This spring, in the town gallery, they presented their paintings alongside other Ukrainian artists.
Alyona exhibited, among other artworks, a painting of 528 crosses. The large black-and-white work evoked a great response. It shocked, but most importantly, faithfully depicted the pain the artist poured into it.
Each cross symbolised one child killed in the war in Ukraine. "Today there are even more of those children," says Alyona. "We considered both Poland and Slovakia, a country close to Ukraine.
We asked friends and acquaintances about who would be able to help," Alyona says, describing the days before they fled Ukraine. Through a few friends, they were informed that there was a family in Slovakia ready to take them in. The invitation came from complete strangers.
Alyona did not want to believe it, surprised that someone wanted them all – an entire big family of seven. "We said there were a lot of us, we also had a cat and rabbit," she recalls. The answer was, "We have two dogs so feel free to come.
" The days before they left were not safe at all. Alyona's husband stated in .
