There are 4,756 miles between Southington, Connecticut, and Odessa, Ukraine. But for Alexandra Anderson, of Southington, the conflict overseas couldn’t be hitting closer to home.
The Ukrainian native’s family, including her 19-year-old sister Evgena “Zhenya” Sheremet, lives in Odessa.
It is the country’s third-largest city, an important port on the Black Sea, and Russian troops are closing in.
“It’s like a bad dream, I think,” Zhenya said. “I hear explosions all the time. … I didn’t recognize what it is going on. It’s very hard to understand when the bombs are near your house.”
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The sisters spoke exclusively to NBC Connecticut’s Heidi Voight via Zoom, with Alex at home in Southington and Zhenya outside a home on the outskirts of Odessa.
Neighbors helped her flee the inner city to take shelter in a house in a more rural area along with her mother and 11-year-old brother.
Because of his young age, he is the only male in the immediate family not to be drafted to fight. The other men over 18, including Zhenya’s father, have been called to serve with Black Sea defense forces, they said.
“I’m constantly texting her,” said Alexandra, who immigrated to the United States in 2005, settling in Avon, then moving to Southington. “She's constantly texting me. And my feeling is like, I feel guilty. I feel like I’m stuck. Like, I can't do anything. I want to do something.”
One thing Alexandra feels she can do is to organize. She’s keeping busy working with 30 other local Ukrainian-American families, fundraising for humanitarian aid and doing legislative outreach to help refugees.
“A lot of us have been calling congressional offices and embassies to make sure they know that our families are coming, that we can start documentation and so on,” she said.
But Zhenya won’t be coming. At least not yet.
Although she started the immigration process last November, she is now committed to stay in Ukraine. She will even take up arms, she said, if she must.
“When it's all over, I know that I arrive to you and to America,” she said. “But now I know I must be here with my family, with my friends. With all who needs me here. I can save my family. And my family is my country, I feel like this.”
“It’s very hard for me to see that,” Alex responded. “Especially like, in my 19-year-old baby sister. This is the first time I have seen my sister taking charge and just like, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to be patriotic to my country.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Though they might be thousands of miles apart, these two sisters are standing together for their native Ukraine.
“I want to say thank you to all who knows about this and try to help us. It's very important for us. And Slava Ukraini,” said Zhenya. (“Glory to Ukraine.”)
The following is a translated written statement from Zhenya:
“I want to start by saying that I am grateful that you do not stay away from the situation that is now happening in my country. It is really important for us to feel that you are morally and emotionally close to us.
"My name is Zhenya, I am a citizen of Ukraine. I work at school as a teacher as an education psychologist. My older sister Sasha (Alexandra) is now trying her best to help our family and our country. My grandma Alla from America, too, she lives in Brooklyn NY, and she worries about us all the time.
"I live in the city of Odessa, where on the first day of the war the occupiers began to take active steps. Now the fire has spread to large parts of our country, but in Odessa it is just as often shooting and explosions are heard, which we also hear and feel. On the first day of the war, my mother managed to transfer me from an apartment to a private house outside the city.
"Mom was left without a car and a neighbor helped us, who was able to pick up me, my cat and dog for the rest of the gasoline. My close friends are now in the army and I am trying to help them financially, since I can’t come to their unit. There is a curfew in the city after 7 o’clock, so everyone is sitting at home, in addition, public transport has stopped in the city and private too. Between cities including. Mail service is nonexistent
"Communicating with the guys from the army, I realized two things. The first is they are determined, no one plans to give up, and the second is sometimes they don’t have enough of what they bring. Therefore, I and not indifferent people collect packages for them in part with food, water and everything that they asked. Today they reported that there are not enough needles, some medicines, food and utensils.
"As for the mental state, I began to notice that people's fear began to turn into hatred. Into hatred for the war and for what is happening. For the fifth night, the whole family has been falling asleep in the same room in a half-dressed state. if something happens, we are always ready to go down to the basement or run into a bomb shelter. It feels like everything that is happening is a bad dream, but we believe that this will end soon and we will have peace again in our country. We want peace in our house, in our country and all over the world.
"Слава Україні,Героям слава та слава нашим зброяним силам. (Glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes and glory to our armed forces.)”
- Evgena “Zhenya” Sheremet, Odessa, Ukraine
