One year later, Ukrainian refugees hope to return home: ‘Such a nation can’t be overcome by any kind of aggressor’

Valentina Bren, who now lives in Orland Park, said she’ll never forget going to the funeral for her former student, who died in the line of duty defending Ukraine at the start of the Russian war.

Olenka Sus, who now lives in Palos Hills, said she’ll never forget the sounds: the first air siren and the explosion of bombs and rockets.

“That was really awful. We didn’t know what to do,” Sus said.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian soldiers advanced into Ukraine initiating a war that has gone on for a year. In that time, Ukrainian soldiers and citizens have fought to defend their country, but millions of other Ukrainians, like Sus and Bren, left their homes for safety.

Sus, 16, spent about the first two months of the war in her home in Ternopil, a city in Western Ukraine, before she and her mother, Nadia, came to the U.S. as refugees. Bren and her husband volunteered toward the war effort as long as they could, but they came to the U.S. Nov. 28, 2022, through the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allows them to stay for two years.

One year ago, Sus said she woke up at 7 a.m. to a phone call from a friend who told her the war had started.

Sus said she immediately called her mother, who was visiting Ivano-Frankivsk. While they were on the phone, Sus said she heard news of Russia bombing the airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, which was near where her mother was staying.

“She was there, and I was so scared because that airport was so close to her. It was bombed,” Sus said.

The first night of the war was terrifying, Sus said, and she’ll never forget her grandmother crying after waking up to the sound of an air siren. After that, no one in the house could sleep, Sus said, so they watched the news.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Sus said.

The Rev. Vasyl Sendeha, priest at Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Palos Park, helped translate the interview with Bren. One year ago, Bren woke up at 4 a.m. in her home in Volochysk, in Western Ukraine, to the sound of air sirens.

Bren, a literature teacher, said that morning she still went to work because she didn’t know what to expect. Many students arrived, she said, but within the first half-hour the majority of parents came to pick up their children.

No lessons were taught that day, Bren recalled, as teachers and students just talked about the shock and confusion.

“It was hard to believe what was happening,” she said, via Sendeha’s translation.

As the days progressed, Sus said she went to school not as a student but as a volunteer for the war effort. She recalled making protective gear so Ukrainian soldiers wouldn’t be seen by Russian soldiers, and a lot of people baked food in the school’s kitchen.

When Russian soldiers took control of Chernobyl a few weeks into the war, Sus said an air siren went off while she was volunteering at school. Sus and the other students were instructed to sit in the hallway, where they were told the walls were likely sturdy enough to remain standing if the building was bombed.

“We were just sitting and just really praying for Chernobyl or other cities not being bombed,” Sus said.

Bren, 58, said once the war was underway, she and her husband volunteered to help the soldiers on the front lines. They raised funds and then drove to Warsaw to buy medical supplies for soldiers, she said.

Bren said her students also started volunteering to make supplies for soldiers, such as small burners made of old cans with cardboard and wax inside, that could be used to heat up food.

While Bren’s town has not been bombed, she said what scared her most was seeing the slow flying missiles headed toward larger cities. She felt the most panicked, she said, when she saw a missile headed in the direction of the city her pregnant daughter drove toward moments before.

Bren and her husband decided to come to live with their son and daughter-in-law in Orland Park because volunteering in Ukraine was becoming increasingly difficult. They decided they could donate and help more if they come to the U.S.

Bren said she’s still in contact with her students, who are still making items like Ukrainian flags, and she sells those items here through the Palos Park church and donates the money to the war effort. Bren’s husband works as a mechanic through a temporary work visa, so the majority of the money he makes they donate to the war effort.

The pair wants to return to Ukraine one day, Bren said.

Hopefully, Bren said, the war will end soon as countries in Europe and the U.S. continue to support Ukraine. She’s proud of her country, Bren said, because everyone, even children, are working tirelessly in some capacity to defeat Russia.

“Such a nation can’t be overcome by any kind of aggressor,” Bren said.

Sus said she and her mother ultimately decided to leave because each day became increasingly more dangerous. It got to the point where there were as many as eight air sirens a day warning residents about attacks, she said.

They took a bus to Poland, then flew to Germany, then Mexico City. They took a 32-hour bus ride to Tijuana, Mexico and then a 10-hour bus ride to San Francisco, before flying to Chicago, Sus said.

On April 19, 2022, they made it to the U.S. and have been staying with friends in Palos Park, Sus said. Her mom volunteers at the Palos Park church while Sus is now a high school sophomore.

Sus said she expected the war to last a long time because Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop.”

“The only thing he wants is our blood, our territory, our homeland,” Sus said. “He just wants everything to be in his hands. But our people they defend our territory. We’re still fighting.”

The hope, Sus said, is for her and her mother to return to Ukraine to see their family and friends.

“We hope the war will end as soon as possible. We hope the victory will be on our side,” Sus said.