‘We left everything we had’: 1 year after war began, Ukrainian families in Massachusetts watch from afar

LOWELL – Oleksandra Chepenko’s journey to Lowell was not fast, or simple. She fled her household’s hometown in Ukraine close to the Russian border along with her mom and 4-year-old son inside one week of the Russian invasion.

“Our lives had been ruined,” she mentioned. “We left the whole lot we had.”

And not using a license or automotive, relations drove them throughout Ukraine into Bulgaria. They stayed in Bulgaria for a number of months ready for Chepenko’s aged father to soundly escape Ukraine. Lastly, in October 2022, Chepenko was sponsored by an area professor to maneuver to Lowell. 

“Actually it was [such a] heat welcome that we might by no means anticipate,” she mentioned.

She lives in a loft residence in Lowell now along with her mom, father, and now 5-year-old son. She’s the one member of the family who speaks English – and the household nonetheless will get round with no automotive or any drivers licenses.

Chepenko has been working on the Worldwide Institute of New England in Lowell, the identical group that helped her settle within the U.S. Specifically, she says Arthur and Julie Barlas, Kateryna Odnorozhenko, Denis Shmelev, Emily and Tom Collins, Paulette and Chuck Caragianes, Caroline Hanson Rowe, and so many others have been integral in serving to her and different Ukrainians get to security.

Reflecting on the battle one yr after the Russian invasion into Ukraine, Chepenko remembers the morning of February 24, 2022 prefer it was yesterday. 

“We awakened one yr in the past with the sounds of missiles and explosions. It was horrible,” she mentioned. “It was actually one thing that I will not neglect ever. . . It was panic. Lots of people determined to depart and escape. It was a horrible visitors jam.”

Chepenko and her household hope to return to Ukraine if Ukraine wins the battle, however Chepenko worries about instability. 

“How can we all know that this would possibly not repeat in a single yr? In two years?” she mentioned. “The value [Ukrainian soldiers] pay for our freedom and independence. . . I simply hope it will not be for nothing you already know? If we do not win. . . I simply can’t think about how many individuals died and suffered for nothing. That is my greatest worry.”