Page 28 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2023

PEOPLE
It’s a war no one believed would happen, especially those who lived and have since fled the war-torn country of Ukraine.
“We were able to bring my parents to the United States just two days before the beginning of the war,” said Nadiya Copeland of the Ukrainian town Veselinovo in the Mykolaiv region. The photographer and wellness coach moved to the states 18 years ago and lives in Pass Christian with her husband and two teenage daughters, the youngest of whom is on the autism spectrum.
“They didn’t want to come,” Copeland said of her mother and father. “No one believed Russia would invade. We live in a century where war just doesn’t seem possible. And now Ukraine is fighting for the whole world. If it loses, we are looking
at World War III with the most destructive weapons in human history. We all need to do what we can to help them.”
Her parents, Nadia and Sergii Myrnenko, even made arguments
to stay in their beloved country and sighted the invasion predictions were only media hype and American propaganda. The Ukrainians were being told by both their government and the Russian regime that the
soldiers and military equipment being sent from Russia to the Ukrainian border were only there for training exercises. The Ukrainian people
were told every day not to worry, and unfortunately, many believed it.
Copeland didn’t.
She lived in constant fear for her family members still in Ukraine and she saw those suspicions come true when the invasion did happen on February 24, 2022, and Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in an attempt to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. More than a year has now passed since the invasion, and Copeland feels for the first time in
her country’s history, Ukraine has its own identity and it’s being seen by the world as separate from Russia.
But, she still has reservations as her brother, Dmitro Myrnenko, remains in Ukraine.
He’s not a soldier trading punches with the Russian military, but he is on a different kind of frontline in Kyiv as a banker. Myrnenko stayed behind along with his girlfriend and several friends to make sure his people had the means to escape or the funds they need for day-to-day necessities.
And it’s a struggle. Some days the functioning banking systems are smooth and other days employees must scramble for necessities such as electricity and constantly listen for siren alerts about incoming rockets or missiles. Ukrainians continue to
Nadiya Copeland and Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi.
28 | April 2023
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
Nadiya Copeland, Vitality Kryvytskyi, Nadia and Sergii Myrnenko at a community diner with the Bishop.
Natali Petrovska, Bishop Vitaliy Kryvytskyi, and Natalia Molsbi.