Ukrainian students at SEMO remain close to homeland

It’s a funny thing about being away from home, the body might wander but the heart has a tendency to stick around.

As combat in Ukraine intensifies, so do international sanctions, Russian President Vladamir Putin’s efforts to conquer key cities and the number of refugees spilling across western borders, a flood of displaced people now comprising more than 800,000 souls. Tuesday, Russian troops seized the strategically important city of Kherson and continue to lay siege to Kharkiv. Kherson is the first major city to be taken.

Five thousand miles and oceans away, Ukrainian students at Southeast Missouri State University feel alarm, but also clear-eyed resolve. Far from physical danger, these students have found their spirits remain with their loved ones in the country of their upbringng.

Tetiana Dronova, Viktoriia Kisil and Yuliia Petlinska were obtaining bachelor’s degrees at Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University when they took advantage of SEMO’s Double Diploma Program, arriving in the United States to study. But nothing about their distance from Ukraine allowed them to feel detached when Russia invaded their homeland last week. The young women, all Ukrainian born and raised, explained that their families, relatives and friends still reside in the war-torn country and remain potential targets.

“The situation in our home towns is not as critical as, for example, in Kyiv or Kharkiv,” wrote the young students in a joint statement. But beneath the sound of near-constant air raid sirens and the nearby explosions continuing late into the night, safety is far from assured. “Our towns can be the next targets.”

But constant terror has hardened rather than eroded their resolve: “Without any doubt, all our close friends and family are ready to defend our Motherland. ... Our hearts belong to Ukraine.”

Myroslava Zelenchuk spent all her life in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv before being recruited to play tennis at SEMO. Like the other Ukrainian students, she feels her family is “not in immediate danger.” Like the other students, however, Zelenchuk also references the pervasive wail of sirens and a constant fear of air raids as Russian pilots attempt to achieve air supremacy over Ukraine. Still, Zelenchuk is undaunted. “My family believes that Ukrainian men will protect us, and this war will be ended,” she wrote in a statement.

Unlike the Russians, Zelenchuck explained, Ukrainians are fighting “only for Ukrainian territory.” She expressed faith in her countrymen’s ability, even outnumbered, to protect Ukraine. Zelenchuk also mentioned that the people of her home city, a group previously unimpressed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have come to see their leader with newfound respect. In light of recent indications the Russian advance on Kyiv has stalled, it seems the Ukrainian army will not cede territory easily and may even be capable of pushing Russia forces back in certain key locations. Zelenskyy remains the commander-in-chief behind this resistance.

Born in Kryvyi Rih, the same hometown as Zelenskyy, SEMO exchange scholar Daria Hudymenko said her family and friends have remained in Ukraine, potentially in harm’s way. Like her classmates, Hudymenko insists her relatives have no intention of fleeing the country. She said her friends and relatives have joined the regional support effort.

“They provide people with accommodation, medicines, food, water, warm clothes, heater, and blankets,” Hudymenko explained.

Some of Hudymenko’s friends have even joined the Civil Defense Force, working in direct concert with the military to detain saboteurs and protect the homeland. Hudymenko insisted she and her countrymen are proud of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army.

“Not only Ukrainian lives but the entire democratic world depends on the outcome of this war,” she added.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to indicate Lviv is on the western side of Ukraine.