An end to the war, a stable job, and new friends: What Ukrainian refugees are wishing for most in the new year
- In the coming new year, Ukrainian refugees are hoping to see stability and an end to the war.
- The Russian invasion has been ongoing since February 24, with no clear end.
As the new year approaches, Ukrainian refugees who've fled the war and resettled in the United States look back on being forced from their homes in 2022 and ahead to another year filled with the most basic unsettled questions.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainians began to flee en masse to other European countries and overseas. Some have spent the better part of 2022 on the move.
Insider spoke to three Ukrainian families who've resettled in the US about their perspective on the new year. Some are hopeful, but others are finding it difficult to imagine the year ahead.
"The war has taught me not to make plans," said Mariia Valova, who in September moved nearly 5,000 miles from her hometown of Berezhany, Ukraine, to a small town in Illinois. "So I live now, and today."
So far, more than 7.8 million Ukrainians have escaped to different parts of Europe, according to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency. In the first week alone, more than 1 million Ukrainians fled.
Ukrainians who spoke to Insider over the course of the ongoing invasion have painted a grim picture of the devastation.They've described hearing missiles fire through the sky in the dead of night, having to share a single bulletproof vest as Russian soldiers tore through their towns, and troops shooting at homes and hospitals.
On the first day of the war, Dmytro and Ludmila Yelenets heard bombs go off early in the morning and decided to flee, Dmytro said. The couple went to Moldova, which borders Ukraine, that same day.
They stayed in Moldova with Ludmila's family, Dmytro said. A few months later, they packed up all over again and flew to Washington state, where Dmytro's brother lives and where they're now hoping to make a home.
"I would like to settle down here in the United States," he said. "To learn English, get a good job, make friends here, make good money."
In Ukraine, Dmytro worked in construction and as a beekeeper. As the new year approaches, he said he'll try to find employment in those fields again.
Other families have already begun to settle in.
Maryna Zabialo, who fled Kharkiv, Ukraine, and resettled in New York's Westchester area in June said from the moment the war began, she knew she needed to get her children out of the country.
"We heard some rockets and bombs from our house, and we made a decision to grab our children and run away from that," she said.
The first two days of the war were spent in her sister's home in another region of Ukraine, she said, hoping the invasion would end quickly. When it was clear the war would rage on, she said her family traveled to Poland, where they stayed for months awaiting documents to enter the United States.
When they arrived in June, her three kids missed Ukraine and wanted to go back, she said. But they've adjusted after spending a summer at camp, Zabialo told Insider. They've made friends and have started school in New York.
Zabialo said she believes the move to New York was good for her children, but she misses her friends and family members, many of whom either still remain in Ukraine or are scattered in other countries.
But all she can do is hope.
"I think everything will be OK," Valova said. "I truly hope that my family will be OK and everything will be OK with my family."