Espoo became a hometown

Viktoria Yanaki from Ukraine settled with her daughter in a quiet area with good transport connections.

A couple of years ago, Viktoria Yanaki could not have imagined that she would move to Finland with her daughter. However, after Russia invaded Ukraine, they were forced to flee their hometown of Mariupol.

“Besides Russia, it was only possible to get to Belarus from the area, so we went there. A charity helped us get from Belarus to Finland via Estonia. At first, we didn’t even know where we were going – the most important thing was to get to safety.”

The Yanakis lived in the Nihtisilta reception centre for a year, after which it was possible to apply for a municipality of residence.

“I did not hesitate for a moment but chose Espoo as our hometown and applied for residency in the municipality as soon as possible.”  

A 62-square-metre two-room apartment in Tuomarila became her new home. She found the apartment herself online on the free market.

“The affordable rent caught my attention, and when we went to look at the apartment, my 13-year-old daughter immediately fell in love with it. It was great that we found a two-room apartment: a teenager needs her own room with a door that can be closed.”

The area’s tranquillity and good transport connections make Tuomarila appealing.

“I prefer to live a little further away from the bustling centres. This area is peaceful and close to nature, and our house is really quiet. No one shouts or slams doors,” she says.

Yanaki works as a shelf stacker at Leppävaara’s Prisma, so commuting is easy by train. There are also comprehensive services near the workplace. Her daughter attends Kauklahti school.

“The City of Espoo has actively provided information in Ukrainian, and a city employee has helped with school matters, among other things. My daughter started in a preparatory class, but in her new school, she is in a regular class with a lot of immigrants.”

The Yanakis have settled permanently in Espoo.

“Mariupol is gone, and even if the war ended, the reconstruction would take at least another 20 years. Our home is here now, and I intend to apply for a permanent residence permit on the basis of employment.”

Viktoria Yanaki is trained as a physical education teacher. Her dream is to one day learn Finnish and find a job that matches her education.

• A total of 110 children from Ukraine attend Finnish-language early childhood education; 44 of them attend pre-primary education. 
• Pupils start basic education after one year of preparatory education. A total of 28 pupils attend Finnish-language preparatory education: 19 are in primary school and 9 in lower secondary school. 
• 7 young people from Ukraine are enrolled in Finnish-language general upper secondary education and 4 in Swedish-language general upper secondary education.

• When a person who has fled Ukraine is granted a municipality of residence, they will no longer be a client of the reception system. Instead, they will become a resident of the municipality and a client of municipal services.
•  A person who has been granted a municipality of residence has the same rights and responsibilities as the permanent residents of Finland.
• Having a municipality of residence in Finland does not affect citizenship and does not prevent the person from returning to Ukraine.
• One of the conditions for granting a municipality of residence is that the person has lived in Finland for a year.
  More information on applying for a municipality of residence is available on the website of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency(external link, opens in a new window).

Text:Katariina Krabbe

This article has originally been published in the Espoo Magazine 3/2023. You can read this article in Ukrainian.
Read other articles in the Espoo Magazine.