- Coming up on IGI, can you imagine celebrating a new year in the warmth of your home, then just a few months later, you are in a new country seeking refuge, away from the violence and war in your home country.

The Russian invasion impact on Ukrainians coming up on IGI.

Stay with us.

- [Voice-Over] This program is brought to you with support from the Lewis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust and from the friends of KTWU.

(gentle theme music) - Hello and welcome to IGI.

Since the Russian invasion, Ukrainian lives have been turned upside down, forcing many to adapt to new countries, cultures and routines.

Over 6 million refugees have left for other countries including Poland, Romania, Hungary, and the United States.

Joining me on IGI, I am honored to introduce Irina Nosak, a Ukrainian refugee who made the long trek to Kansas in April, and Yana Ross.

It's a picking from Ukraine who knew it was her calling to help her follow Ukrainians after the Russian invasion of her home country.

Irina and Yana, thank you so much for joining me here on IGI today.

I wanna start with you, Irina.

Obviously, at the beginning of this year, I'm sure there was no thought in your mind about uprooting your family and heading to the United States.

Can you talk with us about that process and the decision that you made to be able to come to the United States?

- Absolutely.

Like when the war started, this very day we were going to celebrate my daughter's birthday at school.

We prepared treatments, treats and we wanted to have fun.

But suddenly at 5:00 AM, there was some weird sound, very loud.

And I woke up and I took my phone and started to read what's going on and all chats were saying, the war started, the war started.

How come?

No one could believe this.

And I woke up my husband and said, "please run please, please run to the store we need to buy some food, water, the war started."

No one believed that.

But if we look through the window, cars started just to move out of the yard.

Everyone wanted to leave, to flee.

So my husband rushed to the nearest grocery and he bought a lot of food.

And he said that already in one hour, all shelves were empty.

We heard like three bombs or rockets, whatever it was, but it was completely new sound to us.

Kids were sleeping and we still try to work.

Due to coronavirus, we were working remotely and we continued working but the only topic was this war.

And like, most of my colleagues, they rushed away to the Western Ukrainian, no one moved abroad yet this very day, just mostly, most of people, they rushed to Western Ukraine to Lviv.

And the next day, when this first rocket came just half mile from our house to the multi store building, we were very scared because it's so near us, and we decided to leave.

But the head of the city he made this restriction of time and we were not able to go out for two days at all.

No one was.

So on Monday when it was allowed, we just got into the car, my colleague's car, because we have electric and electric car doesn't allow you to go long way.

And already that very day, Russians fully ruined the highway to Poland, to Lviv.

So we changed our mind and we moved to south, to Romania border.

It took us around three days to get there because a lot of block posts everywhere, you cannot drive quickly.

You should stop at every post and show that you're Ukrainian, that you have kids, that you are like with positive thoughts.

And it's good because we were asking at every block post where should we go not to meet Russians?

Because we already saw a few stories when Russians just shoot civilians in cars.

Thank God we safely got to Romanian border and we passed it very quickly, honestly.

A lot of volunteers, a lot, they help with food, clothes, whatever you need, transportation.

And my husband, the very next day, he went back to Kyiv and got to military, to army, to defend Ukraine.

It was me and to my kids.

And we moved to Poland the next day because my work organized some refugee camp there for employee's family.

And my mom also managed to get there through Zaporizhzhia, different wave by herself.

But we reunited with my mom and stayed in Poland for one month.

And then suddenly, the United States announced this program that Ukrainian refugees can get into the US by humanitarian parole.

And Yana, she's my college friend.

- Yeah - We know each other since we were 17, and we were best friend in college.

And she was like calling and text me me every day since the war started, "How are you?"

"How can I help?"

"Please keep in touch."

And when this humanitarian parole program was like approved, yeah, Yana said, "Irina, let's try we will manage please."

For us, it was difficult to, for me and for my mom, especially, because very long way, two small kids, we don't have visa, we should have gone through Mexican border on foot.

We didn't know how it's gonna work because like media showed completely different things which are happening.

They said that people just sleep on the border, just on the ground, and we were scared about that.

But Yana said, "Let's try, we will do it."

And she arranged everything.

She bought these tickets to my family and there was another family we were going with, Yana's friend- - Luda, yeah.

- Luda, she was waiting for her sister and her kids to come with.

So there were two family.

And we arrived to Mexico and everything was so good, organized there.

Again, volunteers, I mean, they made this huge camp with a lot of facility.

You could, you know, honestly, there was even strawberries, watermelon for kids, ice cream.

And Mexicans came and play Mexican music and made taco, and it was all for free , and brand new pillows and blankets and people stayed there like for three or four days to get to border.

But, at the border, every single wave went very smoothly.

Just one hour, a few question from the officer, and welcome to the United States.

Yana was all the time with me, She met us in Tijuana Airport, exactly In Mexico.

They arrived to San Diego, left their minivan they got from some church and they arrived with Lumila to Mexico and stayed with us for three days there.

And yeah, they were very supporting and helped us with cross of making all this process and everything went smoothly.

And then, Yana and Luda were driving for three days through six states.

It was amazing, honestly, beautiful landscape you have here.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing, I know that couldn't have been easy.

Thank you for sharing that with us Yana, I hear about this friendship that you've had stemming back to high school.

How did you get involved?

You know, I know you're originally from Ukraine.

So what brought you to the United States in Topeka?

- So I've been in Topeka about 16 years, actually, It will be 17 soon, it's hard to believe.

But originally I grew up was born in Ukraine, grew up in Ukraine, and then Irina and I went to the same college for five years there.

Then I met my ex-husband back in Ukraine and moved to Topeka.

He was originally from Topeka, had my family and now I own a business.

So when war started, I couldn't believe it because it just was mind blowing.

I mean, Ukraine was a free country.

People were happy there, there was no really anything to prompt somebody to go against Ukraine.

And my grandma was still there.

So I was worried about her because she's 85 and I don't have big family.

My mom passed away a year ago here in the United States from cancer.

But grandma was there by herself.

I was worried about her, worried about my friends.

And so kept in touch with them.

Grandma was able to get out on the third week, we had to arrange transportation for her because it was not safe.

So she actually went with a neighbor and was driven to Poland and then to Germany where my aunt lives.

And so she's now staying in Germany with my aunt.

And then Irina, thankfully, was able to get out, because I was worried Kiev was getting attacked a lot.

And I knew that they were able to get out on the fourth day.

But I also knew that without her husband being by her side, with two little kids and her mom in a foreign country, I could hear in her text an emotion that she's worried.

She's worried about the kids that they were not able to continue with their education, that they were exposed to a lot of germs in a big camp of 1500 people.

She told me how she was doing laundry, and I couldn't believe that she had to stand in line for two hours just to do a load of laundry.

And I have, you know, here in the United States, we were blessed with where we are.

And because my mom lived with me, I have a bigger house.

So I told Irina we have two rooms, empty rooms, there's no constraints.

You know, we have extra space.

So I kept telling her, come, come, you know, you're welcome.

People here will love to be able to help.

And so it started with me being in touch with her.

Since the war started I really wanted to help.

Then Greater Topeka Partnership approached me also about leading a Ukrainian refugee task force, which is not, it was created and a lot of people from different nonprofit organizations, community organizations, different leaders here in Topeka that became a part of the refugee task force.

And being able to have their support and also ended up my friend Luda that I knew that she wanted to bring her sister.

That's how we ended up going to Tijuana.

- Okay.

- Everything fell together.

And it was definitely a blessing to be able to at least help.

We started with these two families, and we were gonna make more plans to bring more families through Mexico.

But on April 25th, that has stopped, and now United States does not allow Ukrainian refugees to come through Mexican border any longer.

So they all have to come on United for Ukraine program, which they have to have an sponsor applying for them to come to United States.

So we actually working on bringing two more families through the program here at Topeka.

But I think for me personally, I have my son here, my business here, so I can't go to the Poland border, Romanian border, or go and volunteer there.

So being able to help people here, bring people here, provide them with safety and also for the kids to be able to go to school and just have some peace, and not to be afraid for their lives, have some stability, it's a true blessing.

- Well, thank you so much for what you've done and what you will continue to do.

Irina, I can tell that this is obviously very emotional for you, but would you be willing to share some of the culture in Ukraine?

Tell us a little bit about the people, your routines, and maybe some of the differences in coming here to the US.

You said it was a beautiful view for those three days.

Just tell us a little bit.

- Yeah.

Wow.

Starting from the beautiful view absolutely, because like, I think we managed to see more of the United States that most of Americans did, because like we saw six states and like Arizona cactus, California mountains, absolutely beautiful.

We were like, "Wow!

That's amazing."

We only manage to see this through our like Hollywood movie which we watched in Ukraine, that's it.

And we always dream to see this yellow school bus, we don't have it, it's different culture.

As about Ukrainian culture, you know, it's beautiful.

Ukrainians are very patriotic.

Can you say that?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, very patriotic.

Every possible holiday, we put on our national costume, vyshyvanka.

This is like huge- - Handmade stitched... - Stitched shirt for men and women, for kids.

We all have it.

And whatever holiday is, you put this shirt, vyshyvanka, at work, to school, kindergarten, whatever.

A lot of Ukrainian songs always sound in the street.

Like difference are everywhere because when we arrived here, first thing I noticed where are the people?

No people outside at all, everyone is hiding in a car.

(Yana chuckles) In Ukraine, everyone is walking.

Everyone walks.

I honestly, I was trying to see at least one person, there was no one.

Just people who opened the door from the car entered the store and then get back to the car, that's it.

In Ukraine, like we walk all the time.

And if you can go somewhere like walk for 30 minutes or drive for five minutes, everyone would choose walk for 30 minutes.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah, this is the first difference I have noticed immediately.

And, you know, the population- - Density.

- density here is very small, and in Ukraine vice versa, very wholic.

We have in our territory, which is like one of your maybe Texas state, about 48 million people.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

And like, I think in such area like Topeka has, Ukrainian would have more than six or seven million people.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

And what is also very different here is food.

- Okay.

- We try to find some food still which we are used to in Ukraine.

And some like very, I don't know how, people here are so blessed and people are so supportive.

Someone helped us with raw milk so we could make cottage cheese, a raw cottage cheese which we use in Ukraine everyday.

Here, you have completely different cottage cheese, we cannot use it for baking.

- Okay.

- Yeah, you don't have oats, you don't have- - Oh, like it's a herring but here the herring is with vinegar.

And in Ukraine, it's just salted fish, but it's similar but total different taste.

- Well, if we were able to find it also raw, but you cannot, I guess.

- Because we can make a lot of thing by our own hand.

- Scratch - From scratch - I also like these cereals, we eat a lot of cereals in Ukraine like buckwheat, bulgor, rice.

Every day we eat it, every day, and here like people mostly eat meat.

We don't eat meat as much as you do.

Also food is so expensive.

- Okay.

- Absolutely very expensive.

But they are- - The healthy food is very expensive.

- [LeTiffany] Yes, yes.

Okay.

- But I think even not healthy food is expensive just in Ukraine, we don't have it much and we cannot compare it.

But like vegetables and fruits, what we do eat everyday, very expensive.

But you guys have beautiful stores and groceries.

They're huge.

You can, I need one bottle of water, but I have to pick up like 20 because you have it packed in big boxes.

(all chuckle) And I cannot just take one.

So we are trying to get used to it, but I'm very, very like surprised.

And I cannot, you know, I expect something wrong gonna happen because only good things are happening everyday.

Someone gave us for free bunk bed for kids with mattresses, another family came and (speaks foreign) - Assembled it.

- Assembled it.

Yeah.

And brought a lot of new toys, clothes, books for kids.

Kids are happy.

Then one another family, they just donated a car to us so I could drive kids to school.

Just in one week, Yana already enrolled my kids to Farley Elementary.

This is the best what happened because kids are so excited.

They're like superstars in their classes.

They don't feel strangers anymore.

They're just like they try to learn English step by step, and teachers very supportive and have an educational center provided like teacher for non-speaking English students, and it's great.

School here is very nice.

And one more difference is everything is flat.

Yeah.

You just have maximum is two stores- - Except downtown.

Yeah, there is fewer albeit.

- Maybe downtown.

Downtown is tiny piece.

But just, if you see the whole Topeka, everything is so flat.

And even like malls, just one store, like yeah.

In Ukraine, everything is high rise.

Like everything is multi store, and you know, in place where I live, it's close to the Kyiv center.

You can walk to five schools in five minutes, there will be around 10 grocery stores, whatever.

So it's fully different.

And here I am, I am learning how to drive everywhere, and my kids trying to get used to driving all the time, no taking a car.

- Being in a car.

- Being in a car all the time, yeah.

- Okay.

Well, Yana, I think you said you've been here 16 years.

- Yes.

- Right.

And so kind of hearing how you felt this call to help and continued call to help, are there some things you're hearing Irina talk about and you miss about Ukraine?

Tell us about the culture.

- So I grew up during USSR era, and I moved away from Ukraine just when the country was becoming very patriotic.

Like two years after I've been in United States already, I went back to Ukraine and I visited with Ira, and her kids were speaking Ukrainian.

Like for me, it was different, because I went to school, we spoke Russian.

You know, we took Ukrainian literature, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian history in Ukrainian language, but we were not talking it.

And there's still some areas in Ukraine where Ukrainian language is not as well spoken or but it is a national language.

The culture, so I'm actually like being around Irina.

I'm like, I miss that, miss being able to walk everywhere not to have to go to the gym for exercise because her town where she lived is beautiful.

It has beautiful architecture, beautiful history, beautiful people.

And what I found here in Topeka is people, people are and community of Topeka is amazing.

So, but of course, the cultures, the architecture, like the richness of, you know, the history, that's something that I do miss.

- [LeTiffany] Okay.

- And being around.

So I don't have big family.

So my aunt she's in Germany, so it's been a long time since I've seen her, as well as my grandma.

So I miss that.

- Okay.

Irina, you mentioned that the kids are adapting and they've gotten to go to school, and they're kind of like little celebrities.

You mentioned earlier that your husband had to stay behind.

Obviously, I don't think you want to stay in the US forever.

Do you have a plan, if you can, to get back home to Ukraine?

- Absolutely.

If war gonna finish soon, which we all pray for and help for, and my husband also like willing this, because he sees everyday we would love to come back to our country.

My kids, they are very happy here, but they do miss their room there, toward their friends, kindergarten, school, teacher, everything.

Everyday they are asking about how things going there.

And we are just looking through the pictures, memories, some videos.

My husband sends me some like old memory picture and we enjoy it.

And we really hope that like this craziness will stop as soon as possible with the help of European countries, and with the United States.

I hope this land is gonna help.

And some support from all world just against one country, it should help.

And we believe we will reunite with husband.

- And you mentioned, are you getting to talk to him still?

- Yes.

Oh, we try to talk every like other day, but sometimes you cannot just phone.

He's not allowed to say where he's what he's doing but some texts he can send, "I'm okay.

Don't worry.

Things are fine.

Like it's quiet here.

But sirens every day, like for 10, 15 times.

So you would come back and we will hide in their basements all the time."

So surely we should be in safety place.

- And I did notice like Irina's son, he's just four, and you know, here we have tornado sirens.

- Oh - Yeah.

- So I did warn them that on each Monday at 12 o'clock, you're gonna hear it.

It's just for training, you know, just make sure that they're working.

But so Irina talked to her kids about it and to her mom and explained them.

Well, two days later we have a real siren and she said unless it's a real tornado coming, there will be no sirens, (all chuckle) and here we go.

- [LeTiffany] Yes.

- But I think because of the sirens from missile attacks- - Oh, they were so scared.

You can't believe, they were in panic, it was some panic attack.

- Yeah.

So taking kids back to country that it's not fully safe is probably not, you know, as adults we can tolerate more.

As kids, they're so vulnerable.

- Yes.

- And they need routines, and that's at this time, they can get it back in Ukraine.

So I know Irina wants the best for them.

And that's one of the reasons why her mom agreed to come is just because of the kids and to be able to help Irina.

Because Irina works at night still, she works remotely, but she has to work on Ukrainian time schedule.

- Yeah, I applied for work permit here, it takes from three to six months to get this permission.

And thank God I still have my Ukrainian work, And I work for Samsung Electronics.

And they still like, didn't like - Let go of people's - They keep old people and pay salaries.

And this help us like to survive here because like food is expensive, but still thanks to it.

And I do work at nights, but it's fine.

(Irina and Yana chuckle) Like, yeah, I love my job.

- Well, I want to thank you both for being so vulnerable and sharing with us the transition here and life in Ukraine.

So that's all the time we have for this episode of IGI.

If you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, please send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

If you'd like to view this program again, or any previous episodes of IGI, visit us online at watch.ktwu.org.

Thank you for watching.

(gentle theme music) - [Voice-Over] This program is brought to you with support from the Lewis H Humphreys Charitable Trust and from the friends of KTWU.