By Harshad Jadhav

On an evening of Feb. 23, 2022, in Boston, Nika Chelnokova, 20, a Suffolk University junior, was casually watching a movie with her roommate when she heard the news of a bombing in her hometown Kyiv, Ukraine. Chelnokova did not believe it at first, assuming it was propaganda. But after confirming it herself, she immediately called her mother, who was in the capital city sleeping and unaware of the situation.

This is the first conversation between Chelnokova and her mother, as described by her after Russia invaded Ukraine:

Chelnokova: "Mom!"

Her mother: "What is going on?"

Chelnokova: "Do you know what happened?"

Her mother: "Tell me, what happened to yo... Nika, your voice.. (shaking and panicked)"

Chelnokova: "The war started."

"And this feeling, that one moment, my words, changed everything for her," said Chelnokova, talking about her first conversation with her mother after the invasion. "And this was just the beginning [of the tragedy]."

After talking to her mother, Chelnokova called her father, who lived next to the military air base and had already woken up "because of the bombs [and] the noise," said Chelnokova. When she asked if they were safe, "we are terrified," replied her father.

According to Chelnokova, she was not the person to follow the news on daily basis, but after the Ukraine invasion, she started spending 13 to 14 hours per day on her phone reading and gathering all the information she could, related to the war.

As the coverage of the war increased, it became too overwhelming for her as "mentally ... [and] emotionally you cannot handle this volume, this pain," said Chelnokova about the current situation in Ukraine, especially in Bucha.

She informed her professors that she will not be able to attend the mid-terms due to the war in her country. "At my school, I'm being very lucky, they [University] are very understandable, they gave me all extensions," said Chelnokova as she took three weeks off. "I didn't do anything. I couldn't just open my laptop and do accounting!" She participated in the rallies as "I felt like I'm more needed there, the school can wait," said Chelnokova.

Chelnokova called her parents "every five minutes," which would make her nervous parents more anxious, and at one moment, she asked her parents to move to a safe location away from the city.

The day when Chelnokova's parents were leaving the city, Russian soldiers stopped vehicles and killed innocent people. "Kids, elders, parents, they didn't care. They just shot. I was really thinking it could be my family and for a few nights, I couldn't sleep at all because I had this feeling that it could be the last conversation with [my] parents."

Pointing to the fact that Ukrainians are lacking basic needs, "with all the privileges we have, [we should] just do nothing and be sad? We have to work!" said Chelnokova. "They are doing their part in Ukraine, and ... we have to do our duties of being Ukrainian, by raising money and spreading awareness ... I can help people, I can support them. I can show them that they are not alone!"

Artem Dinh, a transfer junior at Tufts University studying Biomedical Engineering, is a Vietnamese Ukrainian and lived in Berdychiv, Ukraine, on his maternal side nearly every summer. Dinh is also interested in geopolitics and was following the news, though not thoroughly, and was not expecting the Russians to invade his country.

"I did not see Russian media being ready for the war yet ... they [Russian media] were passively reacting to the war, the propaganda was not ready for the war," said Dinh, when asked why Ukrainians were not expecting an invasion.

Dinh came to Boston in Fall 2021 before studying at a community college in California. Dinh had an internship for the vacation period, but he decided to drop the opportunity due to the war. Dinh feels a responsibility toward Ukraine and connected to Ukrainians in and around Boston to organize various events. He also has a research job with his studies, yet he manages to help his country.

"Your reaction is anger, and you condemn it as terrorism," said Dinh when he first heard about the Russian invasion. But in a few days, when it turned to a full-scale war, "it's not an aggression, it's not a violence. It's a war," said Dinh.

Dinh is the type of person who is relieved by talking to people and after hearing about the war, Dinh started talking to friends in Ukraine and a Vietnamese friend correlating to the situation. Most of his friends did not associate with the issue and didn't know how to respond so they stayed reticent instead. Dinh said his University did not have anything to offer help for 11 straight days or any point of contact since the war.

"My college did a really poor job ... they might have reached out to passport holders, I'm not a passport holder, and there is only one Ukrainian passport holder on the campus, so the fact, that they said they reached out is nothing," said Dinh about the University's response.

It was disappointing for Dinh as Tufts University did not only provide zero support for those affected by the war but also responded late concerning the war. "I cannot even call it a reaction," said Dinh. "After our protest ... and rally on campus, they released a statement (which Dinh explains in simple terms): 'Oh! Too bad, we're sorry!'"

While working on a final group project, Dinh read an email about a Colorado family willing to help Ukraine and sought contact details about Ukrainian communities in the state. He sent a quick email with Ukrainian contacts in Colorado to the family before moving on to working on his project.

Dinh gets a lot of emails as he is now connected with the Ukrainian communities and organizing events to support his country and has become one of the points of contact for information related to Ukrainian events in Boston or supporting Ukraine.

Talking to people during the demonstrations, similar to Chelnokova, Dinh met "Valeria, Nika (Chelnokova), Artem from MIT and other guys," and connected with them.

"We have a small group of students that help and take action when they can, without compromising their lives because everyone has careers, classes, and loans to pay," said Dinh about their non-Ukrainian friends helping them.

After having met fellow Ukrainians, who went through the same trouble, said Dinh, "it [stress and trauma] was easier to cope with."