ORLANDO, Fla. – The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has heightened a sense of fear for Vasyl Luschchyk--a Ukrainian who moved to Central Florida two years ago.
“I’m really upset, and having a daughter studying back in Ukraine-- my heart is with her,” Luschyk said. He recalled that fear when he lived in Ukraine. “In that point of time, every day, two or three soldiers were dying on that eastern border of Ukraine. It’s really sad and all those relatives and all those-it’s been like that situation for eight years already.”
It’s also a fearful situation for Olena Stone, a Ukrainian who moved to Orlando in 2006. Stone’s entire family still lives there.
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“They’re scared. They don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. They’re prepared to evacuate if they have to,” Stone said.
For a close relative who is part of the Ukrainian military, leaving their country is not an option.
“He took some time off for about two-three years. He spent time at home but now he’s ready to go back to war and fight again,” Stone said. “Even though everybody is prepared to fight, we don’t want war, we want peace. But history shows that [the] Kremlin, you can’t trust what they say. They say one thing they do a different thing.”
Stone said she hopes the crisis between the two countries doesn’t escalate. She’s seen up close the scars left by the ongoing conflict-- volunteering for Revive Soldiers Ukraine-- a local nonprofit in Orlando.
“We’ve brought 70 soldiers--wounded soldiers who needed new legs or any other part of the body that they’re missing due to the war,” Stone said. We brought them to the U.S. for rehabilitation purposes and some have gotten surgical procedures.”
Tensions between the two countries intensified when Ukraine’s leader said the country wanted to be part of NATO.
“In recent history, there’s been a movement by Ukraine more away from Russia and more towards the west, more towards the European Union countries, towards NATO countries and in the minds, in Moscow, they inherently see that as kind of threat rather than the actions of a sovereign country,” Paul Vasquez, a UCF associate lecturer for the School of Politics, Security and International Relations said.
“For there to be progress, either side here either kind of needs to concede entirely or it needs to feel like they’ve accomplished enough out of what they’ve done to be able to kind of end it peacefully,” Vasquez said. “It may come down to it being Ukraine stepping back and saying we won’t join NATO. That may be it.”