INDIANAPOLIS — The war in Ukraine has gone well past 100 days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that Russian forces now control one-fifth of Ukraine.
A Ukrainian pastor recently reunited with his family in Indianapolis after his wife and children fled Kyiv in March. But Sasha Skrypak is already planning to return home to continue helping people and his country survive the Russian invasion.
About 100 people displaced from their homes sleep on the floor of the sanctuary of Skrypak’s Almaz Church NGO Friends of Ukraine in Kyiv every night.
"Putin and the Kremlin decided to destroy the Ukrainian nation,” Skrypak said, with his wife, Olga, interpreting. “If Ukraine does not stand for itself today, if the whole world would not unite to protect Ukraine, they may destroy the whole nation."
Sasha and Olga have four children. The family sought shelter from bombings in the subway early in the war. But Olga and the children fled with thousands of other refugees to bordering Poland March 9. Missions partners in Indianapolis helped them fly from Warsaw to Indiana and are providing the family a temporary home.
"The emotions, they go up and down several times a day,” said Olga. “You're so grateful to be here and to be safe, and so happy that your children can have some type of normalcy. At the same time, you get the news from back home that your city's bombed."
Sasha stayed behind in Kyiv. His church team of volunteers sift through the ruins, helping survivors whose homes and lives are destroyed.
"They want to kill us,” said Sasha. “They want us to go into the ground. But they don't realize that we are seeds and we will grow up."
Sasha was allowed to join his family in Indianapolis a couple weeks ago. But he will go back to Ukraine before the end of the summer and prays his family will be able to safely join him one day.
"We're absolutely confident,” said Sasha. “It is the desire of our hearts to be back. We have a great hope that one day we will be able to go back."
But he knows the war is far from over.