Ukraine top of mind for those with family ties

Not long after visiting his ailing mother in Ukraine and returning to Minnesota last spring, Yuri Ivan, music director at St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minneapolis, received “minor orders” from the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago.  

He told his mother that day about being installed as a reader and cantor, and a friend in Ukraine told him how proud she was of her son, even asking for a little cognac to celebrate. The next day, he learned his mother died sometime after his friend’s visit.  

Ivan said he is happy that his visit with his mother seemed to “give her steam to go for another two months.” When he arrived, she couldn’t sit by herself. Within a week of his being there, she began walking again, he said. “That boosted her life,” he said. “So, I was not afraid to leave her.” 

Ivan said a priest also reminded him of the story of St. Simeon, who saw baby Jesus at the temple with Mary and Joseph. “And St. Simeon saw the boy and said, ‘OK, now God, you can let me go.’” 

Ivan has other relatives in western Ukraine as well, and friends and colleagues across that war-torn country. Some are in the trenches fighting the Russian invasion that began in February, he said. “We are constantly praying for them and hope they come back alive,” he said.  

Those not fighting still hear air raid sirens daily, Ivan said. He fears that Ukrainians will have difficult months ahead, especially as Russia targets power plants, electrical substations and high voltage lines. Rocket and drone strikes left more than 1,000 towns without power Oct. 18. Neighborhoods in Kyiv lost power and water. The BBC reported Oct. 18 that one Ukrainian official in the president’s office said, “The entire population needs to prepare for a tough winter.”  

Prices are rising and Ukraine’s economy is destroyed, Ivan said. 

The increased rocket attacks prompted many to flee into western Ukraine, Ivan said. Trains arrive daily with wounded Ukrainian refugees, he said. 

Many cross into Europe, but others who don’t have language skills or feel more comfortable staying in Ukraine do not leave. “They just stop before the border,” he said.  

One of Ivan’s relatives is a child psychiatrist in Ukraine. “She says PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is going to be the number one issue in the foreseeable future,” he said. “More and more children have seen the atrocities of the war and gone through things we don’t want to think about.” 

Ivan and other members of St. Constantine have been keeping in touch with relatives, raising money to help Ukraine, mourning their country’s losses, finding hope in its gains and praying for an end to the eight-month war.  

St. Constantine parishioner Joe Kryschyshen said he monitors multiple news outlets in hopes of gaining an accurate sense of the situation in Ukraine. He also receives updates from a cousin in Chicago who is in regular contact with aunts, uncles and cousins in Ukraine. 

Kryschyshen said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is reticent to use nuclear weapons because it would change the world order. And he is facing “dissension at home,” he said, with young men, many educated, “who don’t want to die for a war that has no meaning for them.”  

“Ukraine is fighting with their heart and Russia’s fighting because they have to,” Kryschyshen said.  

Ivan said he believes it’s a miracle that Ukraine is “slowly taking back territories.” “I pray that, somehow, we have a major breakthrough … that it’s not inch by inch taking back territories, … and that the situation resolves soon.” 

Nadia Doroschak, 80, also a member of St. Constantine, said she was captured by the Nazis in World War II, taken with her family to a prisoner-of-war camp until 1945, then moved at age 4 to a displaced persons camp in Germany. She knows about war and immigration, she said. 

Her husband has family in western Ukraine. They tell the Doroschaks, “We’re not living in the Middle Ages anymore,” she said. “We don’t have to be enemies toward others. There are ways to negotiate. But when you start killing people for no reason at all, there’s no desire to negotiate because then you have to stand up for your rights.” 

Relatives in Ukraine are preparing for winter, “trying to make sure they survive and trying to keep their spirits up,” Doroschak said. Relatives also described seminars in Ukraine being offered to help people separate truth from propaganda, she said.  

Ukrainians Olga Zhuravel, 70, and her husband, Mykola, 74, parents of Inna Collier Paske, principal of St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul, traveled from Ukraine in June to help their daughter and family as they prepared for a new school year. Collier Paske also wanted to give her parents a break from living in a country torn by war and take them on a long-planned trip to Hawaii.  

While their hometown in central Ukraine has largely been sheltered from damage experienced by people living in larger cities, the family does hear warning sirens daily. On Ukrainian Independence Day, Aug. 24, when they spoke with The Catholic Spirit at Collier Paske’s home, they were told by people in Ukraine that sirens blared “nonstop.” 

“The only hope that we have is in God,” said Olga Zhuravel, through her daughter’s translation. “And we strongly believe he’s going to help us. All our hope is in God.” 

Father Ivan Shkumbatyuk, a Ukrainian rite Catholic priest and pastor of St. Constantine, said he knows people around the world support Ukraine. He hopes that continues. “It’s not only about saving Ukraine’s land, but to make sure to help everybody in the world, to not make slaves of other people, to continue democracy,” he said through a translator. 

---

SUPPORTING UKRAINE 

Fundraisers at St. Constantine Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minneapolis have supported Ukraine. Following a liturgy Aug. 21, traditional Ukrainian food was available in the church fellowship hall. Parishioners and guests could make freewill donations, which were directed to Prosthetics for Ukrainians, a project of the Minneapolis-based Protez Foundation, which provides free prosthetics for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who lost limbs during the war. The parish did not disclose the exact amount raised. A fundraising dinner is being held Oct. 23, with proceeds directed to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Ivan said. 

The parish’s humanitarian refugee committee helps families resettling in Minnesota, supplementing aid from the Ukrainian American Community Center in Minneapolis to help with settlement, transportation, food and some living expenses. And Yuri Ivan, music director at the parish, helped St. Constantine host the 13th annual Byzantine Choral Festival Concert Oct. 16. Five choirs from the Twin Cities metro area performed, including St. Constantine’s. Freewill offerings were accepted for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.