Over a year ago, on Feb. 24, 2022, the first missiles struck when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Thousands of miles away, junior Karina Grokhovskaya, a first generation Ukrainian-American, was watching it unfold live.

“My mom had the T.V. on and the first words she said to me was that he started a war,” Grokhovskaya said. “I just broke cause I’ve been there at least four times in my life. And that’s, you know, that’s my heritage there.”

For her dad and Ukrainian immigrant Konstantin Grokhovskiy, it was a feeling of helplessness as he suffered seeing his homeland endure the devastation of war. 

“It was just unbelievable pain because these cities are where I grew up and seeing all the buildings falling down and the cars, it was so painful to see,” Grokhovskiy said. “To understand that the people, these same people like we are, could be in this building. It was so painful to understand in whole and to understand that there’s nothing which you can help at this very moment.”

The war in Ukraine is about more than just military supplies. For senior Alexandra Vasilkovsky, it’s also a humanitarian crisis.

“So my mom sent money back to our relatives that’ve gone to Poland, so she sent some money to them so they could live there, get resettled,” Vasilkovsky said. “And there was family that was coming in through Mexico. Right now, a lot of Ukrainian immigrants are coming in through Mexico to try to get to the states.”

However, Ukraine is making strides in its ongoing recovery, thanks to help from supporters and Ukrainians across the globe such as Grokhovskaya’s parents.

“My mom has definitely been very active in trying to show, you know, Russia’s war crimes and what they’ve done,” Grokhovskaya said. “She had to go over there to just try and help the most she could. And she still helps to this day. You know, we go to the UPS with 60 pound boxes of supplies to give to the soldiers.”

One of the supplies Grokhovskaya’s families have supplied were long range binoculars.

“Last year when we supplied one of the units of the front they received through one of the long range binoculars,” Grokhovskiy said. “And this binocular was like a miracle saver. And one of the units spotted their missile that was going in the sky and they were able to hit this missile and fall down. And to me, it was such a big joy this was someone that was safe at this moment.”

Despite the war entering its second year, many Ukrainians have faith their country will survive.

“Us Ukrainians are very resilient people,” Grokhovskaya said. “We have shown time and time again that whatever Russia comes out, whatever kind of tactics they want to come at us, we’ll come ten times more. And I think that having hope that this will end is what I think is the big thing.”