After a year of refuge in Roanoke Valley, Ukrainian mother and son return to war torn homeland

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Cruise operator denies plea L ast year, William “Kip” Thompson and his wife, Beni, began planning “the vacation of a lifetime.” It would be for themselves and their five offspring, the youngest of whom is 15. Soon, the south Roanoke couple will have four in college at the same time, yikes. They figured summer 2023 would be their last chance in years to have an all-inthe-family vacation. So they splurged. They booked a seven-day Alaska cruise package, DAN in a luxurious CASEY three-bedroom suite, aboard the Norwegian Jewel. The package included five days of postcruise land travel in Alaska, as well as air travel for all seven Thompsons. They booked it through Norwegian Cruise Line, a well known Florida-based cruise operator. The trip’s cost was $60,619.17. Kip Thompson, a local eye surgeon, paid that fully five months in advance. Some weeks before they were to leave, NCL sent the Thompsons their itinerary, including flights. Beni Thompson noticed a potential hitch almost immediately. They were flying on the same day they were supposed to board the Jewel. That made her nervous. She said she contacted Norwegian Cruise Line twice by phone about that specific concern.

HEATHER ROUSSEAU, THE ROANOKE TIMES

Jenya Yevheniia Shulym, 34, and her son, Egor, 8, fled the war in Ukraine last fall and came to Roanoke, where they had a few family connections. Now, after nearly a year of living safely in the Roanoke Valley, they are returning to their war-torn homeland.

Mom and son return to home, and to war

to speak English and made new your family,” Jenya said. “It’s After a year of refuge in Roanoke Valley, friends. Egor enrolled in Roanoke very important for Egor to have Public Schools,and found his father.” Ukrainian mother felt pull to leave for homeland County a fondness for pizza. Jenya got a Jenya’s baked goods contribHEATHER ROUSSEAU

The Roanoke Times

Jenya Yevheniia Shulym was up to her elbows in flour, baking custard biscuits, shortbread cookies and sausage bread rolls. After carefully spreading a homemade custard along the biscuits she made from scratch, she dabbed a small blob of jam in the center of one, sandwiched two biscuits together and cradled them in her

palms while covering them with biscuit crumbs. She baked to help raise money for fellow Ukrainians defending themselves in the war against Russia. As she baked in her Roanoke County apartment, she thought of her family in Ukraine. A year ago, with her country crippled by war, Jenya fled Ukraine to protect her 8-year-old son, Egor. The two have learned

job she loved. They made friends and sought to adapt to American culture. Jenya tried to live a normal life far from Russian missile attacks, but the pull of family and home proved too strong. She decided to return with her son to their war-torn homeland. “I think many people can’t understand how to choose to go back to a place where everybody is at war, but you come back to

uted to a display of blue and yellow handmade treats and gifts, Please see RETURN, Page A6

Watch: For a video about Jenya and Egor Shulym and their time in the Roanoke Valley, point your smartphone camera at the QR code and click to follow the link.

Please see CASEY, Page A2

Russian missile attack kills 7 Strike wounds more than 100 in northern Ukrainian city

city on Saturday killed seven people and wounded over a hundred others, including children, Ukrainian officials said. The attack in Chernihiv happened as Ukrainian President EFREM LUKATSKY, KARL RITTER Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in AND ELISE MORTON Sweden on his first foreign trip Associated Press since attending a NATO summit CHERNIHIV, Ukraine — A in Lithuania last month. Russian missile attack in the Images of the aftermath center of a northern Ukrainian showed badly damaged buildings

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including a theater with its roof blown away, mangled cars and survivors walking amid the debris with bloodstained clothes. The dead in the daytime strike included a 6-year-old girl, while 15 children were among the 129 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior ASSOCIATED PRESS Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The square in front of the Firefighters work on a roof of the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Regional Academic Music and Drama Theatre damaged by a Russian attack in Please see UKRAINE, Page A8 Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Saturday.


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After a year of refuge in Roanoke Valley, Ukrainian mother and son return to war torn homeland by Smith Mountain Laker Magazine - Issuu