One year later: Lexington man with family in Ukraine reflects on war

It's been almost one year since Eduard Svystun's life and his family's was turned upside-down by war.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – As President Biden makes an unannounced visit to Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv Monday, just days before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country, one Lexington man with family in Ukraine reflects on the past year.

February 24th marks one year since Eduard Svystun’s life and his family’s was turned upside-down by war.

“I’m very glad we are pushing them the way we are, but the price is very, very high for sure,” said Svystun.

Svystun’s entire family lives in the Rivne region of Ukraine, where it’s relatively peaceful. As peaceful, he says, as it can be when a war is raging around you.

“It’s constant worry and anxiety. You just don’t know what can happen the next day. All it takes is a few hours and the situation can change in seconds,” said Svystun.

We spoke with Svystun on the eve of his little brother’s birthday. He’s wistful as he talks about his brother he’s never met, having left his country seven years ago.

He says he wishes he could visit him for his birthday.

“Like I said, a lot of times you have to try to catch those few hours when they have electricity. And when they do have electricity, they try to do their chores around the house. It’s really weird, the 21st century and people don’t have electricity and stuff like that,” said Svystun.

Svystun fears for his family’s safety, saying the ongoing blackouts in Ukraine prevent him and his family from speaking as often as he’d like.

He says he has friends in the Armed Forces of Ukraine who’ve been injured and then sent back to the front.

“The fighting is intense. It’s really, really bad. I have a friend, he’d been injured twice already. Luckily, he’s still alive. It wasn’t very serious but he was in the hospital. He was sent to the front lines a third time. It’s really bad,” said Svystun.

He says the pain of war isn’t just felt personally: it feels like a country-wide betrayal. He says Russia and Ukraine were like brothers: similar in culture and similar in faith.

All that–tainted by war.

“We are two Orthodox countries. We share the same faith. And now there’s a separation. It’s really sad,” said Svystun.

When asked if the war might end soon, Svystun says he doesn’t see an end in sight.