TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — This week marks three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, a conflict that has reshaped lives both in Eastern Europe and across the globe. As ceasefire talks take place, members of Tucson’s Ukrainian community reflect on the war’s toll and their hopes for the future.
For Tucson resident Mikhaylo Mikhaylik, the war’s outbreak in 2022 was both foreseeable and shocking. Having moved to the United States from Ukraine in 2011, he witnessed tensions escalating before Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
“The tension was slowly building up,” Mikhaylik said. “You could see and feel the encroachment of that Russian kleptocracy throughout the government and how it would operate within the country and business.”
However, the scale and brutality of the war still took him by surprise. “It’s unbelievable that it’s happening in the 21st century, where we were supposed to be living in a civilized world of the future, which is now.”
Mikhaylik’s ties to Ukraine remain strong, with friends and family serving on the front lines. He describes their situation as dire yet determined. “They’re wounded, they’re tired as hell,” he said. “They’re not giving up because they have something to fight for.”
Beyond the battlefield, ordinary Ukrainians face relentless hardships. “All of their lives have been upended,” he said. “It’s daily air raids, nightly air raids. The economy is, of course, struggling. It’s power outages because Russia is targeting energy infrastructure.”
Despite the suffering, Mikhaylik admires the resilience of the Ukrainian people. “They try to maintain some semblance of normal life,” he said. “They go to work each day, they tend to their kids, they go to school.”
Mikhaylik is concerned about recent diplomatic discussions between the U.S. and Russia. “What worries me a lot in this is that it legitimizes Putin and Russia,” he said. “You should be stopping the crime, punishing the perpetrator, and helping the victim to recover.”
Still, he remains hopeful for Ukraine’s future. “I have hope,” he said. “I have faith in it because there is no alternative.”
As top U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia on February 18 to discuss a potential peace agreement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy postponed his trip to the talks, stating he didn’t want to “legitimize” discussions that excluded Ukrainian representatives.
You can find a list of organizations giving aid to Ukrainians on Ukraine’s official website.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
