Spring has come to Ukraine, as it has to northern Illinois. Most of Eastern Ukraine has been left in rubble and littered with land mines, making daily living dangerous and many regions uninhabitable. That is the reality of life today in Velyka Komyshuvakha, the village where my grandmother was born.
This will be the first spring for my family without livestock to care for and their garden to tend to. Without the connection with their land, it has been a depressing reality. Despite all odds, they have gone back to Velykha Komyshuvakha and are planning to eventually return and rebuild.
Since the war started 14 months ago, we have lost three relatives. Two were older men with chronic medical conditions. It is doubtless that stress, depression and lack of adequate medical care contributed to their deaths. The third was a young man with his entire life before him. All of these men were hard workers who dedicated their lives to their families.
Vasyl Oleksandrovich was a retired factory worker living in Saltivka, the eastern region of Kharkiv. He had leukemia thought to be caused by exposure to industrial chemicals from working in a Soviet factory. He was caring for his wife Antonina, whose dementia gradually worsened as bombs fell over Kharkiv last summer. Their neighboring building was demolished. Getting adequate nutrition was almost impossible at this time. The driver of the volunteer who provided food for this elderly couple was shot by a sniper. When Vasyl was hospitalized, the hospital was full of wounded soldiers and civilians. He had been without treatment of his leukemia because his oncologist had fled and the treatment center had been bombed. Stress, malnutrition and dehydration hastened his death. The elderly couple living next door died similar deaths.
Mykola was the grandfather of the distant relatives who left Velyka Komyshyvakha during the bombardment last summer. They were relocated to a village in the Poltava region, where they spent the winter. He was diabetic. After becoming ill, he died last week. He is believed to have suffered a heart attack. During the Soviet era, Mykola was the former head of the collectivized farm in Velykha Komyshuvakha. He was buried there last week.
The third relative we have lost was a 38-year-old man from my mother’s side named Andrij. He grew up as an orphan with his grandmother in a small village in central Ukraine near to border with Moldova. After being drafted and undergoing basic training, he went into active duty shortly after Orthodox Christmas. He was wounded from artillery fire at Soledar. He was hospitalized for a week in Kyiv with a chest wall fracture and a missing hand before he died. His fellow soldiers said he fought bravely and he received a hero’s welcome in his native village Sainka, where he was buried.
It is important to remember the history of World War II, when my grandparents escaped the horrors of war. In June 1943, as the Germans retreated and the Red Army approached, lines of wagons rushed west in order to avoid “liberation” by the Soviets. In 1945, during the final German retreat, Ukrainians again rushed west for the American zone of Germany. Ukrainians from eastern and central Ukraine desperately tried to escape forced repatriation to the Soviet Union, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement. For the people who remained and were “liberated” from German occupation, life became hell on earth under the Soviets.
Toward the end of the war, the Allied forces ceded much territory of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union in order to end the war. Leaders such as Churchill soon saw what a mistake this had been. Soviet NKVD agents were allowed to screen displaced persons camps for men, women and children eligible for repatriation. Their fate was commonly exile to Siberia or execution. Tragically, many took their own lives to escape this fate. Soon thereafter the iron curtain fell, and the cold war began.
A great struggle of good and evil has surfaced on the battlefield in Ukraine. Fortunately, the United States and western Europe have continued to support Ukraine in its struggle for freedom. I am proud of how much aid has come to Ukraine from grass roots efforts in the United States, including my hometown of Crystal Lake. I hope that the bitter lessons of the past century are not forgotten in the resolution of this war.
• Dr. Nicholas Skyba II is a first generation American. He is a family practice physician who lives in Crystal Lake. He leads ODUM (American Association of Youth of Ukrainian Descent). He has relatives living in Eastern Ukraine.