In Leaving Ukraine, Refugees Find a Home and Sense of God’s Family

Large family gatherings were common at Olha Soroka's home on the edge of Mariupol. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press.

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One day, a bomb damaged the fifth floor of Kuznetsova’s apartment building. The city was fully occupied. With no water, electricity or medicine, the level of desperation grew by the day. Sparse communication sent sporadic word to the Atlanta area, where Kuznetsova’s daughter, Olga, and her other children in America were working feverishly to secure documents for refugee status.

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“One day my daughter told me there was a man who could help us get out of the city,” Kuznetsova said. “We followed him in my small car, avoiding the military checkpoints. At times we drove where there were no roads, just woods or a field. We had to change tires a couple of times.”

It took several hours, but they made it out of Mariupol to the city of Berdyanks’k after a month-and-a-half under siege. It was the end of March.

After Berdyanks’k, the group moved to Zaporizhzhia. Both cities were also mostly occupied by invaders. Kuznetsova remembers watching locals drive at high speeds down streets, choosing to risk their lives with a crash rather than make themselves easy targets for Russian military.

What Zaporizhzhia did have that the previous two cities didn’t was medicine, which had become vital for her 85-year-old mother and was available in an unoccupied area.

They would stay in the city for several days, cared for by churches and local police. It was during this time that other family members went in different directions, with the two women continuing to America. Zaporizhzhia had almost become fully occupied, so they drove to Kropyvnytskyi, staying nearly two months.

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Members of another local church cared for them, as did a compassionate businessman and political leader. He closed down one of his toy stores and cleared out living space for Soroka and Kuznetsova. They received food, medicine and a place to shower in the nearby fitness center, also owned by the businessman.

Kuznetsova’s children in America were able to secure the proper documentation during this time. The mother and daughter drove five hours to Odesa, near the border with Moldova. That city was also cramped with refugees, but friends were able to secure a spare apartment for them.

The trip to the Moldovan border meant goodbye to their homeland as well as those who had helped them. It also meant goodbye to Kuznetsova’s car, not designed for much of the terrain it had endured over the previous 700 miles or so and now on the edge of collapse.

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ScottBarkley@churchleaders.com'
Scott Barkley
Scott Barkley is national correspondent for Baptist Press.

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