3 Ukrainian teens are living in Bloomington to escape the war. Here are their stories.

Violetta woke up to a loud bang.

Zlata was awoken by her mom and dad at 6 a.m. before they left for the supermarket to stock up on food.

Ivan woke up normally, unaware of what was happening in his country before he checked his phone to see a hoard of texts from his friends.

The whirlwind that followed was a blur at times and terrifyingly vivid at others. What the Ukrainian teens remember most, though, is waking up on Feb. 24, 2022 — the start of Russia's war.

They watched as rockets flew above their homes and helicopters whizzed past their windows. They read news articles on their phones while their cities were attacked. They crammed as much as they could into a suitcase or two and rode planes, trains and buses thousands of miles away from their friends and family and landed, of all places, in Bloomington.

The three teens — 13-year-old Violetta Pryschepova and 14-year-olds Zlata Yadukha and Ivan Kovalyov — arrived in Bloomington this spring to escape the war. They spend their days at Harmony School and their nights with extended or host families.

While other middle schoolers are looking forward to summer camps, part-time jobs and running around with friends, Violetta, Ivan and Zlata are left wondering when they’ll get to go home.

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Why did they leave?

Out of the three, Violetta speaks the least English. It can make her seem shy. In reality, she has a lot to say, sometimes even more than Ivan or Zlata. So she does it in paintings.

Harmony School is an independent school that focuses on allowing students to creatively express themselves. Violetta, a visitor at the school, has spent the past few weeks creating painting after painting. Pictures of a burning building and debris. A mother carrying a baby swaddled in blue and yellow. Another woman carrying a Ukrainian flag through a burning Kharkiv, Violetta’s hometown.

For a few weeks before she left Ukraine with her mom, Violetta lived in a bunker during the day and slept in her home at night. She thought everything would blow over soon enough. Then, the attack helicopter came.

Her mom grabbed her hand and led her to a corridor where there were no toxic gasses. “Lie down on the floor,” someone yelled.

She didn’t cry until the helicopter had left, but her throat ached and her whole body trembled. She knew she and her mom were about to leave behind her grandpa, who has trouble hearing, and grandma, who has trouble seeing. She packed one bag full of clothes and necessities and said goodbye.

Zlata and Ivan came later.

In Khmelnytskyi, Zlata couldn’t sleep through the sounds of air raid sirens. Ivan looked out the window with his mother and saw what they thought were shooting stars, only to realize the stars were rockets.

Many of the neighboring towns already had been attacked, and they knew their city likely wouldn’t be spared.

On the third day of war, Zlata screamed and ran away from the windows when she heard planes zooming overhead.

“I really thought it would save me somehow,” she said.

She couldn’t think of much besides wondering if the next minute would be her last. So when her family found an opportunity for her to leave, she knew she’d have to take it.

How did they get here?

Since the first day of the war, Zlata’s parents were searching for a way to get her and her 16-year-old brother Misha out. One day, Zlata’s aunt Iryna — a Ph.D. student at Indiana University — said the children could come stay with her and attend Harmony School.

Zlata’s mom told Ivan’s mom about Harmony School. The school would help cover their travel costs and tuition. Ivan could stay with Iryna’s friend who lives in town.

Within a day or two, Ivan and his mother were in the car on the way to Germany to get his visa.

The first time, he was denied a visa because he didn’t have documents to prove he would return to Ukraine. So they bought a ticket home. The second time, he was almost denied because he didn’t have proof of housing, but eventually the visa came through. All in all, it took about a month to get out of Germany.

“We were happy, but we were very tired,” Ivan said. “I missed my home a lot.”

He left behind his mom, dad and two sisters, one younger and one older. His dad is working in a town near Odessa, which has been bombed several times since the war began. Ivan thinks about him every day.

All three left behind friends, family and pets. They left behind school and hobbies such as singing and playing on the computer. They left nearly everything.

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What are their lives like now?

The three teens stood at a podium in front of their middle school classmates, waiting for the last few to arrive. Ivan could hear Zlata’s shuddering breaths next to him.

On the last week of school, after weeks of walking around with their stories largely untold, they prepared to show the class what life was like in Ukraine during the war.

They talked about the first day, the "worst day in our lives," they said. They described the planes and the helicopters and the bombing and the uncertainty. They showed photos from the internet of destroyed airports and gridlocked roads.

“Guys, be grateful for your lives,” Violetta told the class, “because your lives are beautiful.”

Before the war, they lived typical teenage lives. Violetta spent time studying and hanging out with friends. Ivan enjoyed playing Rust, a multiplayer computer game. Zlata was a singer and an actress and loved to cook concoctions like bacon-wrapped bananas.

Since arriving in Bloomington, they’ve gone on hikes at Griffy Lake and explored restaurants such as Runcible Spoon. Most of the time, though, they sit at home, bored.

In many ways, the teens are mature beyond their years because of the tragedies they experienced. But they’re still kids. They light up when their families send pictures of their pets on WhatsApp. Their parents constantly pester them to make sure they’re not eating too much junk food.

“I always want to know how they’re doing, but they’re like, ‘I’m OK, what about your day?’” Zlata said. “I just don’t know anything about them. They’re always asking what school is like, and I always tell them what was in school, and that’s all.”

When Zlata first arrived in the U.S., she cried every day and barely ate for weeks. She feels OK now — much better than before — but she thinks about her family constantly.

As school lets out, they’re thinking more and more about when they’ll get to return home and what it will be like when they do.

Ivan has a ticket to Ukraine for mid-June. He doesn’t know if it will actually happen, though.

“Everything can change,” he said.

Contact Christine Stephenson at cstephenson@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Teens flee war-torn Ukraine to live in Bloomington