Sun City residents Joseph and Mila Kacher are watching the unbelievable footage of an invasion of their birth country. The Kachers immigrated to the United States in 1978, and although they left their country 44 years ago, the Russian invasion deeply affects them.
Mila said, “We decided to come to the United States in 1978 when the USA opened the borders. We were lucky. Seven of us left. My husband and I with our 3-year-old daughter, my mother, his parents, and my sister-in-law. We had a friend from Kyiv living in Chicago, and he took us in for 6 months. My husband was a Tool and Die Maker and found a job quickly. I became a nurse, getting a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Francis.”
Like many Ukrainians living in the United States, the Kachers have been reaching out to friends whose family members are still in Ukraine.
Mila said, “I have a friend who has a sister in the city of Lviv, close to the Polish border. They are preparing for the Russians.”
Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine and the sixth-largest city in the country, with a population of 717,510.
Mila said, “I grew up in Lviv in the Western part of Ukraine, while my husband was from Kyiv. We married and I moved to Kyiv. Six of us lived in a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom home.”
Across the country, Americans watch the war and are taken aback by seeming senselessness of the invasion.
Mila said, “I think something has triggered Putin’s madness. Something triggered this craziness. I think his attack on Ukraine was totally unprovoked. The fact that they look to the Western European countries as an example for their own society was not making Putin happy. At first, I thought this cannot be happening. This must be footage from the Syrian war. But then I started recognizing landmarks, and I couldn’t believe it. Kyiv was a vibrant city. It is so sad.”
From her experience, Mila explained that under a very strict regime Russians have a different way of living than Ukrainians have, citing examples such as the new law recently passed that threatens protestors with fifteen years imprisonment for speaking out or preforming against the war.
“They are afraid. We all are afraid. But we should all demonstrate. We need to give the Ukrainians support. People of Ukraine love their country, [are] proud of its history, and will fight against this aggressor to the end.”
With an unpredictable Putin and terms like Third World War already circulating throughout media channels, sparking fresh concern in a world already rocked by two years of a pandemic, Mila said that disagreements between people challenging this aggression are not important and that preventing catastrophe should be the primary goal among all people., and she has seen how the war has united a lot of people.
“The war has united a lot of people. We unite to fight a common enemy,” Mila said, and wished, “Slava to Ukraine, which means [Glory to Ukraine].”
Headline: Ukraine invasion hits close to home for one SC couple
