KYIV, Ukraine — Kyiv is a bustling city, a beautiful city, a city that, on the surface, doesn’t feel like they’re at war, but they are at war.
You wouldn’t know it walking around. Hotels and restaurants are open. Most buildings are intact. Despite everything that’s happened, things feel normal.
But the stories the Ukrainian people hold are far from it.
Alex Tinyaev was our driver and translator. He’s from Ukraine and decided to evacuate his family from the country.
"I have three kids. We were sitting in a cold bomb shelter, and we decided we can’t really live this way with our kids, that’s why we went to Romania," said Tinyaev.
Romania is where we began the two-day journey to get to Kyiv, Ukraine.
The country is roughly the size of Texas.
Because of the war, airports are closed, so the only way in is to drive.
I volunteered to go with Generation Hope International, a Tampa Bay Area non-profit that was taking humanitarian aid to areas impacted by the war.
Along the way, we stopped in Lviv, a historic city in western Ukraine. There we came across people who were packing 6,000 boxes of food to help those in the eastern part of the country.
It's where we met Iryna, who said she’s staying in Ukraine because her husband can’t leave.
"I don’t want to go alone without my husband," said Iryna.
Men, ages 18-60, are forced to stay in the country in case they are needed to fight.
On our way to Kyiv, we came across a fleet of destroyed Russian tanks lined up on the side of a road.
A charred shoe sat next to destroyed tanks, a frightening reminder that they were still very much at war.
Crumbling buildings haunt the outskirts of the city. A graveyard of cars destroyed by missiles on the highway to Kyiv is stacked up on the city’s edge.
Ukrainian pastor Viacheslav Kogut showed us videos right after some of those bombings. Most of them are too gruesome to show.
He took us to Andriivka, a small village northwest of Kyiv. It was among dozens of villages seized by Russian soldiers who terrorized civilians and destroyed homes before eventually withdrawing in early April.
It’s where Tatiana's husband was shot and left in a ditch while she was hiding in her basement. Now her home is nothing but a pile of rubble. She spoke to us while standing in what used to be her living room.
“We were happy here, we had love here, and now there’s nothing left," said Tatiana.
We met up with Lena, who lives a few houses away.
Her home was also damaged by missiles, and bullet holes remain in her walls.
She said her elderly husband fell ill after Russian soldiers blasted through their door and beat him so badly that he remains in bed to this day.
"The stress has been terrible. We are crying a lot. We begged the Russians not to kill us," said Lena.
The people in the small village are still in desperate need of help.
Generation Hope International brought them boxes of food.
I met with the town’s mayor, who took us to a leveled kindergarten. He says after destroying it, the Russian soldiers used it for their trash.
When I asked him why people still living here, he simply explained that Russia wants people to be afraid, to live in fear, and if they did live that way, then Russia wins.
Resiliency doesn’t begin to explain the people of Ukraine.
No one is untouched by the devastation of the war, but they still have the courage, strength, and faith to keep living their lives and remaining hopeful while believing in God, their country, and each other.
To help the Tampa Bay area non-profit Generation Hope International, click here.
