Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has touched lives all around the world, including one Redhawk family, who has had to say goodbye to a beloved friend. AP Secretary Kirsten Radford remembers her friendship with Pierre Zakrzewski, an Irish journalist who was killed reporting in Ukraine. 

“I knew Pierre through my brother,” Radford said. “He and my brother were best friends for more than 30 years, and Pierre was the photographer at my wedding. I found out about Pierre’s death through him, and it was just devastating to see all over the news.”

Zakrzewski worked as a war zone journalist for decades and his death prompted responses from colleagues and friends from all over the world. Radford’s brother, Stephan Smith, first met Zakrzewski when they were both journalists reporting in Afghanistan.

According to Smith, Zakrzewski was “kind, courageous, positive, and generous.”

Reporting in places such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Baghdad, Zakrzewski dedicated his career to covering conflicts in various countries.

“He was a good guy, I just remember him always being very happy, just a very positive and friendly person,” Radford said. “To me what is so upsetting and makes me so angry is that someone like that, his life has been cut short. He was a good person and he was doing good things, trying to get this information out to the world.”

The pain that has been brought upon local families with ties to Ukraine has inspired other Redhawk families. For sophomore Karina Grokhovskaya, a first generation Ukrainian-American, that means having her mom volunteering on the Slovakian-Ukrainian.

“When Russia first invaded, my mother sat on the couch for days, and she couldn’t even move,”  Grokhovskaya said. “I think she felt kind of helpless, because for her, that’s her childhood. She moved here about 20 years ago, but she grew up and spent most of her life in Ukraine. She decided to go to Slovakia a few days after the Russians entered Kyiv.” 

Grokhovskaya’s mother, Ella, has been working in refugee camps, helping those crossing into Slovakia. 

“She’s been there for a few weeks, helping with refugees and the volunteer effort,” Grokhovskaya said. “There’s a lot of refugee clinics at the Slovakian border, and she’s stationed at a few of them, helping however she can. It’s very emotional for her, so just seeing her doing all of this makes me really proud to say that that’s my mom.”