A Russian tank advances in the Ukrainian countryside. Russian has lost hundreds of tanks in its invasion of Ukraine due to anti-tank weapons and poor strategy according to the BBC. Graphic by Kimmie Johansen.
Story By Reese Greenlee
Dead animals and contagious diseases fester in the basements, and in many, water reaches knee-high.
This is the shelter junior Adam Leybovich-Glikin’s great aunt and her young children flee to daily when bomb sirens go off in their hometown.
Adam’s great aunt, 72, decided to bunker down with her family in their apartment building when war broke out in Ukraine. She lives on the fifth floor, and any floors below the sixth have no elevator access, only stairs.
One night, sirens filled the streets. She sent her kids down to the basement but struggled to make it down the stairs. By the time she reached the second floor, the sirens had subsided.
An hour and a half later, sirens began to blare throughout the city again. Leybovich-Glikin’s aunt made the decision to send her kids to the basement while she locked herself in a bathroom because she did not think she would be able to make it to the basement in time if a missile were to hit the building.
This is the new reality for Ukranians. It began in October of 2021, when Russian forces made their march to the Ukrainian border, bringing food, medical and military supplies with them.
In November and December, satellite images painted the picture of missiles and other advanced machinery moving closer to the border. Then, 100,000 Russian troops were stationed outside of Ukraine. After communication talks between Russia, the U.S., and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S. sent defensive weapons to Ukraine.
Then on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion into the country.
Since the start of the invasion, 7.7 million people have been displaced, according to the Council on Foreign Relations and more than 4,966 verifiable civilian casualties have occurred which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released with the warning that this number was an undercount.
But this isn’t the first time Russia has invaded a country. Leybovich-Glikin’s father, Vlad Leybovich, pointed out a similar situation with Georgia in 2010.
“When Putin felt a little more bold, he invaded it and put a proper government that was loyal to him,” he said. “He saw how easy it was. Sure, there were little sanctions here and little sanctions there but he became emboldened. He thought NATO didn’t do anything, the United States didn’t do anything. Let me try Crimea now.”
Crimea is a territory claimed by Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014 and continues to occupy.
Ukraine hasn’t always been independent either. Throughout history, Ukraine was ruled by Russian and Austrian-Hungarian empires, Poland and Lithuania, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
“Ukraine literally means ‘border land,’ and having that name implies that the people themselves living there have not been that great of importance to those major decision-makers,” said Yana Spitzer senior and first-generation Ukrainian-American.
In 1917, Ukraine declared independence, forming the Ukrainian People's Republic. Ukrainian continued to fight the Bolshevik Red Army to keep its independence until 1922 when the Ukrainian Army lost.
The country became known as the Ukrainian Soviet Republic of Soviet Socialist Republics, one of the member countries of the Soviet Union.
Leybovich is from Odessa, Ukraine, and his wife, Vicky Glikin, is from the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. They were born under the Soviet Union.
Growing up, according to the pair, they faced religious persecution from the government.
“My grandfather was jailed for 10 years because he was accused of being of Jewish faith,” Leybovich said. “He was very smart and got to high places. They called him very negative names. They would not let us go to synagogues.”
According to V icky, the idea of a nationality line was relevant to everything in Ukraine. It separated her from her classmates.
When Glikin was in first grade, she was given a passport that she used to pick up books on the first day of school. The card contained her nationality. Her classmates’ passports had “Russian” or “Ukrainian” on theirs, but Glikin’s said “Jewish.”
Leybovich left the Soviet Union for the U.S. in 1991 when he was 15-years-old. Glikin immigrated to Chicago when she was 13.
Seeing Ukraine evolve from the system of their youth to a democracy added to the tragedy of the war in the country for the two.
Although the family left their home country, their relatives and friends remain in Ukraine.
“They have kids that are Adam's age, 17, 18, and they are about to send their kids to war,” Leybovich said. “It is not a game. People die. People get shot on the streets. People get trapped in burning cars.”
Leybovich and Glikin are horrified to see the country they grew up in under attack and are terrified for their friends’ and families’ lives.
“Russians and Ukrainians have been brothers for the last 2,000 years and to see all of the families torn apart,” Leybovich said. “I feel very powerless sitting here in the nice Park Cities.”
Glikin’s family friends drove to the Polish border to leave their 14 and 16-year-old children with friends in order to protect them.
At the border, the friend picked up medical supplies from the person who took in her children and then headed back to Kyiv to continue to work on the front lines of the war.
“She feels a sense of duty,” Glikin said. “She’s a doctor and there are so many wounded.”
While these people are staying in Ukraine, others are seeking refuge in Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Belarus, and Russia. Some are coming to stay with family in the U.S. Senior Alexa Magee’s grandmother is one of those people.
Magee’s mom Natasha told Magee’s grandmother she needed to quickly throw her personal belongings into a bag and flee to the U.S., just three days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
“Think about it, one night you go to bed and then the next morning someone says to grab a backpack,” Natasha Magee said. “You may never be coming home because the situation has changed.”
Although Alexa Magee’s grandmother is in the U.S., the Magees have family and friends that are still in Ukraine.
Natasha Magee texted her close friend to ask why he and his family decided to stay and fight. His response moved her.
“He said, ‘At first we considered leaving, but then if I leave, who is going to stay and defend our country? What will happen to our country?” Natasha Magee said. “‘Fear cannot overtake me. My experience is hatred toward my enemy but love towards my country and family.’”
Credits:
Graphic by Kimmie Johansen