"You are a citizen of an unfriendly state": famous Ukrainian actress shares how she found herself in Moscow at the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the first time

The popular Ukrainian actress Dasha Volha was in Moscow when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The artist planned to enter the Russian territory for a few days to reissue her documents but was able to get out of there only a month later.

In an interview with OBOZ.UA, the actress told the details of those terrible days. Dasha Volha says that she was very afraid that they could make her "such a high-profile spy that detective writers would be jealous."

The actress Dasha Volha was born in Kyiv, moved to Moscow with her parents when she was a schoolgirl, graduated from a theater school there, and received a passport back in the USSR. She has acted in both Ukraine and Russia. When she got married, she moved with her husband to New Zealand. Meanwhile, her parents returned to Ukraine. And in 2018, Volha and her sons came to Kyiv, where she lived until the full-scale invasion.

"When I came to Kyiv in 2018, I had two passports: a New Zealand one and a Russian one. I got the Russian passport when I was young," the actress says, "and you won't believe it: it turned out that it was easier to get temporary residence permits in Ukraine with a Russian passport. And I needed it urgently: my father was ill with cancer."

The actress received a residence permit and lost it in Istanbul in December 2021, "This is the worst thing that could have happened to me. The Russian passport for which the Ukrainian document was issued was expired. I wasn't going to renew it. What could I do? I knocked on all the doors of Ukrainian authorities. I was told that there was nothing I could do except go to Russia to renew my documents, return to Ukraine, and get a Ukrainian residence permit again. Without a residence permit, I couldn't go to any project or sign a contract for filming. I decided I had to go."

On February 20, 2022, the actress found herself in Moscow, "Upon arrival, I was detained at the Moscow airport, along with citizens from the UK, Lithuania and America. They took our documents and look us to the shift supervisor. Later, by some miracle, they gave me my documents back, and the woman who flew in from London was taken somewhere and I heard what they said, "Unfortunately, an invitation from your sister is not enough, you are a citizen of an unfriendly state." And I realize that something is growing like a snowball."

"I'm in now Moscow, I go to apply for sh***y documents, and a few days later the invasion begins. And I realize, sitting in my friend's apartment, that my documents say that I was born in Kyiv, came from Kyiv, and my Wikipedia biography says that I condemned the Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbas. If you want, you can make such a high-profile spy out of me that detective writers will be jealous."

"You know, in those terrible days I felt like I had a concrete slab on my chest. My friend's daughter came to see me and told me that she had just been riding the subway and the police were snatching students' phones and checking what sites they were looking at. Some were grabbed and dragged by their teeth. This is a really sadistic state. Her friend was later dragged by force to the military registration and enlistment office. He managed to ran away. And I found myself in the midst of all this horror. And if I had been there alone, I would have gone crazy. My friend called my children (they had already left for New Zealand with their father by that time), but I still had anxiety attacks every day. It was unbearable to face this filth. My children asked me about only one thing, "Mom, will you be able to get out? Will they let you out?" I can only imagine how they felt: when we were reunited in March, my eldest son must have followed me by the hand for a month. And he is an adult, independent boy."

Read the full interview with Dasha Volha on OBOZ.UA on Friday, December 8.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!