American writer and editor Kate Tsurkan initially moved to the Ukrainian city of Chernivsti to work as a volunteer English teacher four years ago.
In her previous life, the Ph.D. student in French literature at New York University made regular trips to Paris and taught French and English on the side to models, business executives, and the like.
But all that changed when she moved to Ukraine in search of something new. Now she is living through the Russian invasion of her adopted homeland.
Kate Tsurkan is a Ukraine-based writer and translator. Photo: Supplied/Kate Tsurkan
When the Russian invasion began, the thought of leaving crossed her mind because of the uncertainty but she says she couldn’t leave her husband behind.
“I don’t have children yet, so I just saw there was no reason for me to leave and I’m a journalist so I thought why not stay and try to collect stories, promote them as best I can.
“Recently, I had an article published in The Guardian about cancer patients during war time so I was able to do this story because I kept in touch with the doctor in Kyiv who was giving cancer treatment during that time and I think it’s because I stayed that I was able to do such stories.”
Hearing the air raid sirens for the first time in her life was horrifying, she tells Jim Mora.
“My heart was pounding, I started shaking, I didn’t know what to do, so I’m looking for my socks, to put them on and freaking out that I can’t find them, trying to grab my cat and put her in a carrier to bring her into the basement.
“It was just pure chaos really, because you understand you have very little time … you understand what’s important to you and what’s not important to you when you grab something quickly and you run.”
Chernivsti remains untouched by the Russian forces and it's become a safe haven for those displaced, she says.
“We have over 70,000 refugees now, or even more, these are just the people that are registered with government for aid so it could be much higher than that.
“So all these refugees have transformed our large town into a quiet bustling city, which makes it all the more good and relief that nothing has happened here, because there’s a lot of women and children.”
Tsurkan and husband Dima also recently made room in their apartment for Zhenya and Lena, a couple who fled Kharkiv for Chernivsti, despite not knowing them before.
They have now returned home, she says.
“A lot of people are returning to their homes which is good because it’s been more than two months of war and Ukrainian army is winning so we see a lot of headway, a lot of success, and people want to return to normal life.”
While Ukrainians strive to keep a sense of normalcy to survive the horrific war, there is an understanding that life has irrevocably changed, she says.
“We feel something at times that is tantamount to survivors’ guilt. We are sitting in a café or walking in a park and in eastern Ukraine there is bombs going off, and it’s very surreal.
“Although we live through war, our war that we are living through is quite different from what people in the centre and east of Ukraine are living through.”
Talking and speaking about the war has been tough, she says, but that will continue even in the years after it ends.
“It’s very complex, emotionally speaking, to think about this war.
“Even diaspora in the United States, or Canada, or New Zealand, there’s Ukrainians everywhere who are also deeply affected by it, albeit in different ways, so this war touches many, many people.
“Ukrainian writers … are picking up weapons and joining the army and it’s heart-breaking, men and women by the way.
“A lot of Ukrainian writers have taken on the role of journalists, writing op-eds for major Western media publications, talking to radio outlets, so they’re using their words to spread the message of Ukrainian bravery in this time.”
She says the solidarity shown by Ukrainians, not only in Chernivtsi but throughout the country, will define the crisis for the long term.
“I know that the road ahead will be very difficult but the absolute strength of Ukrainian civil society has shown us that Ukraine, as it says in the anthem, has not yet perished and in these times, Ukraine will be rebuilt and it will come through stronger than ever. I believe this 100 percent.
“I hope that the world will not just watch what is happening voyeuristically, I hope they will learn from Ukraine because I really think Ukraine is living by example right now.”
Tsurkan has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books and other publications. She is now editor in chief of literary magazine Apofenie, which she co-founded.
