Alina Lysenko is a fourteen year old girl, who loves reading and Ryan Gosling. On the surface, she may seem like an ordinary person. However, this is far from the case. Lysenko used to live in Kharkiv, a beautiful city in Ukraine, one that is also very near the border to Russia.
On February 22, 2022, Lysenko assumed it would be a regular day. Instead, at six in the morning, she awoke to terrible sounds, the Russian military coming into Kharkiv.
“They were like sounds that I’d never heard before. [They] were explosions,” says Lysenko. She then went to find her parents, who were frantically calling friends and family. It was then that Lysenko realized something was wrong.
“People were talking, [saying] something [like this attack] might happen,” says Lysenko, “but I talked to my friends and they all were saying ‘no that won’t happen, Ukraine is the center of Europe, they won’t attack us.’”
Even as her mom told her that the war had begun, Lysenko could not believe it.
“I wish I could wake up one day and [this] was all just a realistic dream,” she says.
Lysenko, currently, is safe and well. In contrast, Lysenko reported that her grandmother is currently living in a Russian occupied area. The last time she visited her grandmother was for Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24. She did not know at the time this would be the last Independence Day Ukraine would celebrate as a result of the conflict..
“I remember the holiday clearly. There were fireworks, [and] people were happy,” she says, “We had a lot of fun, and now it’s Russian territory.”
Lysenko and her immediate family have safely moved to France, but the hardships have not ended yet.
“It’s really difficult for me because people here have a [different] way of thinking,” she explains, “They speak French, and I had never learned French.”
Some of Lysenko’s friends, however, have stayed in Ukraine. Lysenko explains that they don’t often talk about it, but living there is painful and difficult. For the most part, their lives are like nothing happened, but they have to constantly flee to bomb shelters and hide from air attacks, and fear runs deep in their community.
Ukraine is still in the state of war, and the Ukrainian people need all the help we can give. While there may not be many Ukraine support resources in Loudoun County, Lysenko reminds us that there are still things we can do.
“People cannot forget about Ukraine, people have to know all around the world,” Lysenko explains, “Share posts on instagram or any other social media, or learn about our culture here and our tradition. You have to know how people [here] feel.”
If you would like to support Ukraine in a bigger way, check out enginprogram.org, a nonprofit organization that connects Ukrainian kids with English-speaking volunteers, and allows the kids to practice their English. The goal is to raise a generation of English speaking Ukrainians, which will help them connect to the world and raise awareness.
An anonymous student at Briar Woods is a part of this program.
“I’m a part of [this program] because I want to help others in Ukraine with learning English,” the student explains, “It’s important and helpful to have skills with English so [they] can communicate with people.”
Whether big or small, as a community we need to make a concerted effort to be aware of what is happening in the world around us. By just keeping them in your hearts, you have already done more for them than you can imagine.
