Immaculate Martinez | València (EFE).- Igor is a Ukrainian traumatologist with twenty-seven years of experience who cannot carry out his profession in Spain because he does not have the homologation of the title, and here he has had to work in eco-parks to receive some income to complement his work as a distance university professor.
Two days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, this Ukrainian traumatologist with the fictitious name Igor traveled to Tavernes de la Valldigna (Valencia) to help a colleague prepare a house that he had bought and has been in this municipality. Valencian-speaking community where they have stayed throughout this year.
Without being able to practice medicine or find a job as a driver -he has B and C permits-, he has worked as a vacation substitute for a month in summer and another in December in the Simat and Cullera eco-parks, and a contract begins in the next few days two or three months at the Tavernes ecopark facilities to cover the sick leave of a pregnant worker.
Back home
It is the reason why he does not return to his country sooner, where he plans to return as soon as he finishes this job in May or June “even if the war continues” because there he has a house, car, job and his family -his wife and a thirty-year-old daughter with a job -. “To live here, I need to have at least one job,” he said in an interview with EFE.
When the war broke out, he spoke to his wife on the phone and they decided it was better for him to stay in Valencia, hoping to work as a doctor.
After a year, he has almost decided to return to his city, Kharkov, located 30 kilometers from the Russian border and partly destroyed by weapons, and to his home, although his wife remains in Ivano-Frankivsk, where she moved due to the bombardments. since in this city is located near the border with Poland.
There he will try to continue with his life before the war, dedicated to traumatology in the largest hospital in his city, with 1.5 million inhabitants, and to teaching at the University of Kharkiv, where many foreign students (Arabs, Africans and Indians) left the country when the war began.
With their professor colleague they went to Madrid to the Ministry of Universities to ask when they could have the recognition of the title of Medicine and they were told that it would take two years. “For me it’s nonsense because I have twenty-seven years of experience and I can work,” he laments.
Igor knew Spain as a tourist from his trips as a couple to places like the Basque Country, Santander, Madrid, Malaga or Catalonia; He now knows as a user how the Caritas and Red Cross organizations work. EFE
