As the Russian-Ukrainian conflict escalates, a local and recent immigrant from Ukraine, Grygorii Rozdorozhniuk of Griffin, SK. shares with us updates on the situation and struggles he and his family continue to endure. Yesterday morning Grygorii was able to connect briefly with his mother in Ukraine; when suddenly their conversation was cut short by the sounds of warning sirens and his mother had to take cover. 

“The only thing that they can do, is once they hear sirens, they just go in the corridor just to be away from windows and outside walls, in case missiles hit close, at least they will survive,” explained Rozdorozhniuk. 

While some of Rozdorozhniuk’s family live in villages in the northeastern part of Ukraine, his brother and family live in the capital of Kyiv.  Many residents of Kyiv have sought underground shelter in subways, this is not the case for Rozdorozhniuk’s brother and his family. Grygorii says they live too far from the station, and it is not safe for them to attempt travel. They have stayed home so when the sirens sound, they also flee to their nearest corridor for safety.  

Rozdorozhniuk’s Aunt Olena Lugova lives in the town of Dymer, a hotspot 50kms north of Kyiv and 13kms southwest of Katyuzhanka.  For several days the family had not heard from Olena; finally, yesterday his aunt made contact by using a neighbour's phone, she had been sheltering in an underground bunker, created during the Cold War.  

“There’s no power, she’s not able to charge her cellphone, that’s one problem the other problem is the cellphone provider, there is no coverage in that area,” explained Rozdorozhniuk. “She used a neighbour’s home phone to let us know she is okay.” 

While Rozdorozhniuk’s top concern is for the safety of his family when he was asked if he had other concerns at the present moment, he shared many alarming possible Russian military strategies that have him and his family deeply troubled.  

Rozdorozhniuk mentioned the Kyiv Hydroelectric powerplant, located in Vyshhorod just north of Kyiv and worries that the Russians may blow up that damn flooding the eastern part of Kyiv and all cities downstream on the Dnieper River. 

“That’s where all the tap water is coming from, if it floods Kyiv, over time the water will be going, but all the mud with stay, so all the roads, all the streets will be covered with a couple to several feet of mud, so then ambulance won’t be able to move, or military or any people won’t be able to leave their homes, won’t be able to get food, there will be no power, no heat, they won’t be able to cook food,” explained Rozdorozhniuk.  “We suspect this is one of their targets.”  

In addition, anxieties grow for Rozdorozhniuk’s family as the Russian military continues to apply pressure by increasing its military along both the northern and southern borders. 

“The bad news is that Russia is building up their militaries, from the south from Crimea and from the north from the Belarus border, so we all think that in the next couple days, we think there will be a really really big fight on both sides, south, and Kyiv, and it might be much worse than what we’ve seen before,” explained Rozdorozhniuk. 

Rozdorozhniuk and his family find President Putin unpredictable, “We don’t know what he’s going to do.” 

Rozdorozhniuk's family and friends in Ukraine worry that Russian soldiers may also be disguising themselves as Ukrainian citizens to sabotage and create more chaos.  

“The reason they are doing that is, to go somewhere and pretend they are Ukrainian local people, they might be fighting in Ukrainian military to show on Russian news that this is Ukrainian (people) stand up to Ukrainian government, they need a story to tell on Russian television,” explained Rozdorozhniuk. “This is to make up a story that there is a revolution in Ukraine.” 

According to Rozdorozhniuk, the Russian military has been performing this tactic at least since 2014. 

Rozdorozhniuk also references Chernobyl and Russian military activity there, its effect on this radioactive region and long-term consequences to that part of the world. 

When asked if the community of Weyburn could help or give some sort of comfort at this time Rozdorozhniuk had trouble finding the words, “That’s a hard question, maybe Kyiv, where my brother lives maybe there is a place where he could get cash, maybe financially would be a good help.”    

“Another thing is to just talk to your government and let them know we need to help Ukraine more,” said Rozdorozhniuk.