With every Google Photo alert reminding her of a memory two or three years ago, Elmira Miocic, a Crown Point resident, said the first thing she notices now is the change in her Ukrainian family and friends.
As Ukrainian family and friends send her current photos taken amid the two-and-half-year war, Elmira Miocic said the effects of living in a war-torn country are evident when compared to the old photos.
“You can recognize every Ukrainian who stayed in country by (their) eyes,” Elmira Miocic said. “It could be (a) happy face, but eyes they’re like tired, sad.”
Elmira Miocic, 37, grew up in Kharkiv, Ukraine, which is about 15 miles away from the country’s border with Russia, she said. Elmira Miocic moved to Crown Point in July 2020, she said, to be with her husband, Antony Miocic.
Ahead of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Elmira Miocic said she pleaded with her parents to go to the pharmacy to buy medications and to buy non-perishable foods to last them a few months.
Her parents reassured her they would be fine, Elmira Mioicic said. But, she remembered she still had a Ukrainian credit card so she ordered items for them to be delivered to their house.
“Luckily, they were prepared with basic stuff at least,” Elmira Miocic said.
Then, on the evening of Feb. 23, 2022, which was the early hours of Feb. 24, 2022 in Ukraine, her husband said they were driving home from the gym when they started getting alerts about Russia invading Ukraine.
Elmira Miocic said she immediately started video calling her parents to check on them. They answered, and they were okay. But during their call, a loud noise nearby caused her parents to hunch over and momentarily express the fear they were feeling, she said.
“I’m always calling them with video because I want to see face expression,” Miocic said. “I was seeing that they are really scared but they are trying not to show me.”
With the start of the war, Elmira Miocic said it was hard to convince her parents to leave Ukraine because they owned their home and they had jobs.
But, with how close her parents live to the Russian border, Elmira Miocic said she knew they had to leave their home, at least for a little while.
“In Kharkiv, it’s like first you see explosion and hear explosion and then air sirens will go. It’s no way to hide,” Elmira Miocic said.
A few weeks into the war, Elmira Miocic said she found out she was pregnant, so she asked her parents and grandmother to leave the war zone for at least the length of her pregnancy so that she wouldn’t be stressed.
Her parents and grandmother drove through Ukraine to neighboring Moldova and into Romania. Meanwhile, Elmira Miocic said she took multiple flights to get to Romania, where she was able to meet her family, she said.
From Romania, she said they drove through Bulgaria to Turkey, where they stopped. Elmira Miocic said she drove four days with her family from Romania to Turkey, while it took her family eight days to drive from Ukraine to Turkey.
Her family settled in Turkey, and they stayed there from March 2022 to March 2023, Elmira Miocic said. After that, they returned to their home in Kharkiv, she said.
“The good news (is) they come back to Kharkiv to their house and it still exists,” she said. “My parents liked Turkey so much, but they were so homesick.”
It’s been stressful with her parents returning home, Elmira Miocic said, but they are happy to be back in their own home. Her mother was able to return to her old job and her father found a new job, she said.
But, what’s been most challenging, has been living under constant stress without an end date in sight, Elmira Miocic
“They’re hoping next summer, next autumn,” she said.
Her son was born in March 2023, Elmira Miocic said, and her mother was able to fly to the U.S. in June 2023 to see her grandson. Her mother enjoyed a month away from the war to be with her family, Elmira Miocic said.
During the stormy night that led to tornados this summer, Elmira Miocic said she and her husband woke up their infant son and took him to the basement for safety when the sirens went off. In that moment, she had a realization.
“I had this experience once. All moms in Ukraine, during two years, every night, wake their kids and bring them to the bathrooms, between two walls, in the basement, in shelters,” Elmira Miocic said. “I’m lucky to do it once. It’s their reality; it’s their everyday routine.”
The U.S. has been very helpful in supporting Ukraine, Elmira Miocic said. But, she said she has heard a shift among some people who are tired of refugees or immigrants coming to the U.S.
But, to protect their sanity and their children, Elmira Miocic said Ukrainians need to leave the war zone for some time.
“For kids, it’s hard,” Elmira Miocic said. “It’s just one way to save your mental health.”
The Russia invasion of Ukraine began in 2014, Elmira Miocic said, when Russia took control of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine has had soldiers fighting Russia for many years, she said, and with the most recent invasion, the country has needed more support.
“We have brave people. We have people who (are) ready to fight, who’s already fighting,” Elmira Miocic said. “Ukrainians will never give up. They will fight to the last soldier in this country.”
If Russia wins the war, Elmira Miocic said its forces will advance, piece by piece, further into Europe. That scenario wouldn’t play out immediately but is plausible, she said, as is proof of Russia beginning its war with Ukraine 10 years ago.
“I think with strong support, regular support … I just want Ukrainians to win,” Elmira Miocic said.
Antony Miocic, who is also Croatian, said if Russian President Vladimir Putin were able to conquer Ukraine, he would have the opportunity to invade nearby Moldova, Estonia and Georgia, which are smaller countries. After that, Putin would be able to go after larger European countries, like Poland, he said.
“If they’re stopped in Ukraine, we will have peace. If you give them a chunk of Ukraine, if you force Ukraine to disarm, you will have World War III. You will have something that resembles it,” he said.
Elmira Miocic said she hopes to return to Ukraine one day, because she’d like to show her son her hometown of Kharkiv, which has a lot of parks, cultural centers and universities.
“That will be (an) opportunity only when war will be over because I will not put my baby in that danger,” she said. “All my heart believes it. It will be end. We will be able go and spend time as family.”
