Everything changed for Olena Zhyvotovska and Misha Zhyvotovskyi on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia began an all-out assault on the southeastern port city of Mariupol, where they lived. Olena was getting ready to take her two kids, Kostia and Andrew, to school that day.
“I got a message from the teacher that said, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be good, just maybe for safety stay at home,’” she said.
Soon, Olena and Misha could hear bombs falling all around them.
“There were terrible sounds, it was 24 hours a day,” said Olena. “And we stayed there for 24 days, we lived there without light, without internet, without water, without food, without everything. People just survived.”
Her husband Misha said he saw Russian soldiers kill children and elderly people in the streets. The couple said they were lucky to survive in a city reported to be almost completely destroyed by Russian bombing.
“That’s why I believe in God and believe in the angel because I don’t know how we survived,” Olena said.
It was a beautiful city before the war, she said. Mariupol is a port city sitting on the banks of the Sea of Azov. Home to nearly half a million people before the war, it was a center for steel manufacturing.
“In the last five years everything was building,” she said. “There were a lot of places we could go: movies, the zoo. We have everything just like here. There was a drama theater down the road, we had a lot of beautiful places.”
After the war broke out, Misha bought an old Soviet-era car. They quickly packed their things, not wanting to get trapped in the city if evacuation routes closed. They left the city about a month after the invasion began.
Misha has family that have been living in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region since 2014. Being familiar with life under Russian occupation, he said he didn’t want his kids growing up in that kind of place.
“I know how the rules work in this territory and I don’t want myself or my children to ever live in this situation,” Misha said. “It’s like pirate’s territory. No rules, no nothing.”
Olena wasn't even able to take things like her wedding album or children's photos.
“We just took important things like documents. One important thing that we took was my stuff for hairdressing. I don’t know why, for me it was very important.”
Hair styling was one of Olena’s many jobs in Mariupol, along with accounting, being a cashier and working at a post office. She keeps her supplies in a gray and green messenger bag filled with scissors, clippers, combs and the cape you wear when getting a haircut. She still cuts her family's hair, and offers her services for free to friends. That bag is one of the few things Olena brought on their journey to Ashland.
Leaving home
The Zhyvotovskyi’s left Mariupol, bound for Misha’s aunt’s home in Nerubayka, in central Ukraine. What would usually take less than a day’s travel stretched out over three. Misha said they were stopped at countless checkpoints by Russian soldiers, interrogating them and looking for tattoos that could link him to the Ukrainian military.
“I took my clothes off and they checked for tattoos,” said Misha. “And at one post, they pointed [guns] at my children and asked the children about my name and her name.”
They spent three months in Nerubayka before going to Germany, where other Ukrainian refugees were headed. There, they bounced between a number of refugee camps.
After a couple months, they got connected with the group Uniting for Ukraine, which helps resettle refugees in the Rogue Valley.
“For me, I didn’t know what would happen when I came here to the United States. What next? What can I do here?” Olena said.
Ultimately, they decided coming to America was the best option for their kids. When they first arrived in Ashland a little over a year ago, they knew very little English. Olena said volunteers would come to their home every day with food, but the language barrier was difficult.
“For one month I didn’t speak, I just said yes or no, that’s all,” she said. “Now it’s a little bit better but we need to work.”
Olena works at the Luna Cafe at the Ashland Hills Hotel, which she said is an ideal place to practice her English.
“I speak with people every day. For me it's very good, it's the best way to learn English,” she said.
Olena said she was also able to work at an accounting office earlier this year, and she’s thinking about going to school here to study accounting.
Misha operated a mobile crane at construction sites in Ukraine. He said he enjoys that work, and wants to get his commercial driver’s license so he can drive cranes here. He now works as a forklift operator at gourmet giftseller Harry & David in Medford. He said it’s a good place to practice his English in the workplace, which will help him pass the exams needed to operate cranes.
“We want to stay here. But I maybe want to go back to see my family,” Olena said, thinking about returning to Ukraine after the war.
Olena’s Mother, sister, and her sister’s children are still living in Mariupol, but were unable to leave with her. The lack of access to power and internet in the city left Olena without a way to reach them.
“For maybe one or two months I didn’t have a connection with my family,” she said. “I didn’t know whether they were alive or not. When they got in touch with me after two months I was very happy to hear that they were alive and everything was good with them.
"I’m very afraid because it’s happened twice and it can happen again."
Mariupol was the site of frequent conflicts and changed hands between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists from 2014-2015 during the war in Donbas.
Olena said the instability of their home further cements the idea of staying here permanently.
“I’m very afraid because it’s happened twice and it can happen again,” she said.
Olena said she couldn’t imagine this happening to her just a few years ago. The couple said being able to live safely together as a family is what they’re most grateful for now.
The program Olena and Misha came to the U.S. under allows them to stay for one more year. They’re looking at applying for Temporary Protected Status under the U.S. immigration service to extend their stay further.
This Saturday, Uniting for Ukraine, is holding a benefit concert at Grizzly Peak Winery from 1-5 p.m. The concert features a local Ukrainian singing troupe, and proceeds from the event go towards the Ukrainian families who’ve come here.
