Ukrainian performers find home in Hungary

I can’t stand it when I can’t train

Swinging on trapezes, juggling rings or twirling on aerial silks, young Ukrainians with a passion for the circus who were uprooted by Russia’s war are now training in Hungary.

Qazet.az reports that around 100 Ukrainian circus art students from age 5 to 20, with their adult chaperones, escaped the embattled cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv amid Russian bombings.

In neighboring Hungary, fellow circus devotees extended help and solidarity to the refugees, taking them in and allowing them to continue training in the safety of the capital, Budapest.

“I can’t stand it when I can’t train. I just want to perform in circus shows,” said Ira Maiboroda, a 16-year-old acrobat from Kharkiv who arrived in Hungary more than two weeks ago. “When I was in Kharkiv, I dreamed of being in the circus in Europe.

I’m here and I’m really joyful.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the Capital Circus of Budapest along with a Hungarian school for acrobats arranged for the Ukrainian circus students to come to the capital where they would be provided with food and accommodation.