Ukraine 🇺🇦
You thought Ukraine was that simple? Ukraine is super. Ukraine is unique. It has endured the steamrollers of history.
I was born in Luhansk, Ukraine. I grew up enjoying life’s simple pleasures — climbing the trees and barns in my grandmother’s (babusia’s) yard, strolling through the city with my mom and our neighbors after dinner, and savoring the humble foods we bought in local shops. When I was six, my mom and I emigrated to the United States. Thanks to the invention of the internet, I have been able to talk with my family ever since, and we were fortunate to visit them again — and even host my grandmother here.
Then the war in Donbas (2014–2022) began — the first Russian invasion. I was young and didn’t fully understand, but I knew one thing: I wouldn’t be seeing my family for a long time.
On February 24, 2022 Russia launched a full‑scale invasion. Writing this two year later, so much has changed. For many Ukrainians— including me, if you can imagine — this has been the hardest period of our lives. Hopes rise and fall: our president stayed in Kyiv and declared «Ми всі тут» (“I’m here”); our defenders liberated swaths of our land; and the world witnessed Ukrainian courage. Yet every victory comes at a heartbreaking cost that can never truly be repaid.
Every day, I hope for a Ukrainian victory.
Slava Ukraini. 🇺🇦
