CHICAGO, Illinois (Washington Insider Magazine) – Lana Prudyvus gets up in the morning with a sinking feeling in her heart.
Prudyvus, a tennis instructor from Ukraine who now resides in California, is “terrified” by what awaits her on her phone: news updates on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest statement and messages from her father concerning on-the-ground situations in their homeland.
Prudyvus, 25, is filled with stress about the fate of her nation, concern for her family and loved ones struggling to live there, and wrath at Putin as she follows the news of the rising Ukraine situation.
But she was hit by a fresh feeling this week that astonished her.
She is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainian expats in the United States who are fearful of a full-scale Russian invasion of their nation, as well as the likelihood of Europe’s greatest armed battle since World War II.
Some people felt shame in an interview with NBC NEWS, claiming that they are secure in America while their families, friends, business colleagues, and countrymen are living under the danger of war.
Yara Klimchak, 32, immigrated to the United States in 1993 with her family and brother. She established herself in Chicago, wherein she works as a creative strategist for an advertising agency. (Illinois has the country’s fourth-largest Ukrainian population.)
Her thoughts, however, are frequently focused on her grandmother, who also lives in Lviv. Despite the fact that the city is in Ukraine’s west, distant from the turmoil in the nation’s southeast, Klimchak is continuously concerned about her wellbeing.
Speaking to the media and making people aware on social media, according to Klimchak, are 2 ways she can contribute.
That sentiment was mirrored by Prudyvus. On Tuesday night, she sent a 335-word Instagram statement that summarized her views about the place she formerly called home.
Meanwhile, thousands of Ukrainian Americans gathered just outside of the St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in San Francisco during the weekend, 400 miles north of her home in Torrance, to pray and express sympathy with their compatriots.
In the meanwhile, Putin’s venomous language and the impending presence of Russian soldiers have made a resolution to the tensions appear a long way off.
“Ukrainians are well aware of who we’re dealing with,” noted Alex Kuzma, chief development officer of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, the North American branch of Ukraine’s sole Catholic institution.
Despite his feelings of wrath and anxiety, he said he is “encouraged” by the Biden government’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia.
Kuzma went on to say that it’s critical for Americans to recognize that many Ukrainians desire a better future for Russians as well.
On Sunday, Kuzma and other persons of Ukrainian ancestry gathered at the Connecticut state Capitol house in Hartford. He remembers a buddy at the gathering remarking that a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine may be “God’s will —a fight of biblical proportions.”
