A Thought for Tatyana & Her Family in Ukraine

Since Russian troops breached Ukrainian territory 16 days ago, more than 2.5 million Ukrainians are estimated to have fled the country according to the UN High Commission for Refugees. An additional 1.9 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced.

For most people, even those horrified by what Russia has wrought in Ukraine, these are only statistics. But for others the horror is far more acute. 

Two of these 1.9 million internally displaced Ukrainians are the sister and nephew of one of my co-workers, Tatyana who has lived in this country for over 20 years. Suffice it to say, Tatyana has been distressed in the weeks leading up to the war and, despite the resistance of the Ukrainian people and its leadership, has shown little signs of encouragement.

Yesterday afternoon, she broke down in tears in front me. "We're dying!!! We are fighting alone!!! No one will help us!!! What can I do?", she wailed. 

In that moment, I could feel her sense of helplessness. What could I possibly say to her? But she was reaching out to me. I had to say something. 

"You're doing everything you can," I said. I then asked Tatyana when she last spoke to her sister. "This morning," she said, "We talk everyday." This seemed to make her feel a little better.

I then asked her which group had been most helpful to Ukraine. She told me it was the soldiers and how she wished she could to Ukraine to fight the Russians. I told her that if she went that would even the odds considerably. This brought out laughter.

While I might have provided a momentary respite from her despair, the fact remains her sister and nephew have no home to go back to as Kharkiv has been destroyed. Where will they go?

Tatyana asked me to get the message out and tell as many people as I could. For what it's worth, here is my message.

Although what has happened in Ukraine has supplanted COVID as the world's top news story for many Americans it is a story which has nothing to do with them. But there are plenty of Americans like Tatyana who have family in Ukraine and yet no longer have a place to call home. We must not only keep them in our thoughts and provide them with a measure of comfort, but we owe to them to augment their voices. 

Let's keep in mind that there may come a time where we have no place to call home and have no one to speak on our behalf because we did not speak up for our neighbors in their hour of need.