Saturday marked the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian families still fleeing to the First Coast.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — This weekend marked a grim anniversary.
It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, starting a war between the two nations.
The founder of Helping Ukraine, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit helping Ukrainian families get settled on the First Coast, says it comes in waves where she won’t really hear from anyone for a month, then have five families back to back who need help getting settled.
The two year anniversary since it all started brings up a lot of emotions as the war rages on.
“I was driving in the morning when I heard the news and I was balling,” said Helping Ukraine Founder Natalia Plyam.
Plyam will always remember where she was when she found out Russia invaded Ukraine.
It was the day she got her first ticket in Florida, not realizing she was passing through a construction zone when she found out her homeland was under attack.
“I’m crying and I got the ticket,” said Plyam. “I keep crying, not because of the ticket, but because the city they started bombing was my city.”
Within a few weeks of the attack, Plyam got connected with a Ukrainian family that needed help getting settled in Ponte Vedra Beach after fleeing the war-torn country.
“It so happened the guy had seven siblings,” said Plyam. “That already became, like, a clan, and then their friends started coming, so it kind of snowballed.”
Fast forward two years, and Plyam and her organization Helping Ukraine have helped more than 300 Ukrainian people get acclimated in Jacksonville in some shape or form, whether it be with little things like plates or clothes to bigger things like employment and furniture.
“It makes me feel that I’m doing something, even though it’s a very tiny grain of sand, but, that’s all I can do,” said Plyam.
As we enter year three of the war, Plyam says many of those families are still keeping an eye on home, anxiously awaiting positive updates.
“I know a lot of them would love to go back, except, most of them, probably 85% of them have nowhere to go because their homes got destroyed,” said Plyam.
The Associate Press reports Russia currently occupies about a quarter of Ukraine, making things even more complicated for some families.
“For them, it would be impossible to go back, at this juncture,” said Plyam.
Plyam is hoping that by the third anniversary of the war starting, Ukraine’s borders will be restored and there will be an end to the destruction.
“Where we’re going to be, I don’t know,” said Plyam. “The way things are looking, they’re not looking good at all for Ukraine.”
Plyam says she tries to bring all the families she’s worked with together a few times a year so they can share their experiences and help build the Ukrainian community in Jacksonville while they wait to see what the future holds.
