'Unbelievable and heartbreaking': Local Ukrainians share thoughts on Russian invasion

For Whitefish’s Oksana Nechenechy and her family, the nightmare began with a simple three word text message, “War has started.”

On her Wednesday evening drive home from work, Nechenechy received the text from her cousin, informing her that her uncle in Kyiv had passed along the news that the conflict they had all been dreading had indeed come to pass. Russia had invaded their home country of Ukraine.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. I called my dad and he told me he had seen nothing about it on the news or social media, so it couldn’t be true,” Nechenechy said. “Thirty minutes later, the news was everywhere. It had really happened.”

For Oksana and her husband, Nickolay, the news meant that their relatives in Ukraine were now living in a war zone, facing uncertainty, fear and possibly death.

“People knew about the military buildup on the border, but they were still not prepared for this. Nobody could believe the Russian government would be crazy enough to actually invade. The people were just not ready to deal with this,” Nickolay said. “We never thought something like this could happen in the 21st century. It’s hard to believe. Who would have thought this could happen in this day and age.”

BORN IN the same hospital in western Ukraine, Oksana left her home country at the age of 6 when her family fled to Italy as refugees in 1988 and reached America in 1989. Nickolay was 17 when his family immigrated to the United States in 1996.

Despite spending the first years of their lives living less than 10 miles apart, the couple met in Washington years later.

With many relatives still living in the Ukraine, Nickolay and Oksana have been relying on first-hand accounts via phone and text messaging to keep up with the ever-changing situation.

“I don’t think I have read a newspaper or article once since Russia invaded Ukraine. We are getting raw, unfiltered information from our friends and family over there. It’s more reliable that way,” Oksana said. “I can’t concentrate on what I am doing at work. I am constantly receiving new messages and updates. It’s impossible to focus with all that is going on. I sit down and read the updates, and what I see just breaks me. I’ll be speaking with my uncle in Kyiv and you can hear the sirens going off and the bombs exploding.”

While her two cousins and their children were able to find shelter in the smaller communities on the outskirts of Kyiv, Oksana’s 67-year-old uncle refuses to leave the city. He spends his nights working as a security guard while trying to catch what little sleep he can hiding in the basement of his apartment building during the day.

The situation is somewhat better for their relatives in western Ukraine near the city of Rivne, where the fighting has not been particularly heavy, but the realities of war can be found in every corner of the country.

“My family in western Ukraine have been sleeping with their clothes and shoes on, fearing that at any moment the sirens could go off and they would have to flee,” Oksana said. “It’s quiet where they are, but that can change at any moment.”

THE STORY is much the same for Oksana’s sister, Natalya, and her husband Yarislav Shvets.

“It is unbelievable and heartbreaking seeing what is happening to my birth country,” Yarislav said. “My wife and I both have relatives still living there that are suffering, scared and unable to sleep.”

According to Natalya, it was scary how quickly their lives were changed.

“The first day, I honestly had almost no emotion. I was more shocked than anything else. You keep asking yourself if this is really happening. The next day, that’s when it hit us and we began to worry,” she said. “Our day no longer starts off with us getting coffee, now we get up and check on our relatives to make sure they are still alive. We check to see if they are safe.”

BOTH FAMILIES do their best to keep up with news through their relatives and friends each day, including their friends working with the International Ministry of Charity Emmanuel (IMOCM). Based in Kent, Washington, many IMOCM members have been on the ground in Ukraine, delivering supplies and helping in any way they can.

The stories they have been relaying to their friends in America have been heartbreaking, from families being forced apart by the fighting to indiscriminate bombing of civilian facilities.

“The targets don’t seem to matter to them (Russians). Daycares, hospitals, it doesn’t matter. They are bombing everything,” Natalya said. “The reality in Ukraine right now is that wives are leaving their husbands behind to fight and children are being forced to leave their dads behind as they seek whatever safety they can find. When I asked my uncle why he stayed, he said ‘I have two married daughters who have kids and I can’t leave them behind. If I leave and anything were to happen to them, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.’”

“You see all of the destruction and loss and it is just so real. You keep hoping there is a twist to it or maybe it is not real. I wish it wasn’t real,” Oksana added.

NOT ALL of the news the families have received has been bad, though. They are all proud of the way the Ukrainian people have come together to fight against overwhelming odds.

“I think Ukraine right now is the most united I have ever seen. The support that people are giving the country just has me in tears, Oksana said. “People are pitching in however they can just to protect their freedom.”

‘While the enemy has a big military advantage, Ukrainians have the advantage of spirit. It’s like David and Goliath,” Nickolay added. “The Russians go into this fight in the name of their leader’s ideas, while Ukrainians fight for the lives of their children, brothers and sisters and their motherland.”

As each day brings news of new destruction, the families can only hope the fighting will end soon.

“Our hearts break for our people in Ukraine. We can’t sleep well at night as we are very concerned and worried for our country. We are always keeping them in our prayers that God will stop this Russian tyranny. We know there are innocent people on both sides that are being caught up in the middle of all this. It’s not their fault what they are being made to do,” Nickolay said.

“We, as Ukranians, don’t hold grudges against innocent Russian people in Russia or here in the states, even those who support Putin and his ideas. We are praying for them so God will open their eyes because they have been brainwashed for years by Putin’s propaganda. I tell my kids to pray for the innocents on both sides and that prayer is our main weapon right now.”