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.

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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.

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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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THE ROANOKE TIMES

HEATHER ROUSSEAU PHOTOS, THE ROANOKE TIMES

Egor Shulym, third from left, watches the sun set from the lower overlook at Mill Mountain Park with friends on July 28. The friends looked for aliens and Egor asked, “Is Ukraine that way?” as he pointed toward the East.

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representing the Ukrainian national flag, sold during the Star City Motor Madness car show in Roanoke in June. She and about a dozen Ukrainians of the Roanoke Valley gathered amid the heat and rumbling engines to raise money. Since the Russian invasion that began Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian Americans and supporters in the Roanoke region have worked tirelessly to maintain support for people still living in Ukraine. They’ve held prayer vigils and sent care packages to troops and victims of war and rented booths during community events, such as the car show, to sell items for donations.

“All lives of Ukrainians stopped,” Jenya said about the day the Russians invaded.

Daily video calls with family and exhausting fundraisers did not feel like enough for Jenya.

She missed her husband, Maksim, and she believed that her son needed to be with his father.

She also missed her mother and grandmother and wanted to cuddle with her pet.

“I miss my cat, I want so badly to touch him,” Jenya said.

Jenya said when her husband shows her the large, orange feline named Vasilij on FaceTime she wants to be able to feel the cat’s soft fur and vibrating purr.

Jenya and Maksim decided last year that she and their son should escape the shelling of their home in Enerhodar in southern Ukraine for a safe place. When they parted, Jenya had high hopes the war would end within a year.

“Before I think it’s finish in summer, now I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe next summer, maybe five years.”

With the war still grinding on, Jenya decided she could stay away no longer.

Jenya and Egor came to Roanoke in August 2022 under President Joe Biden’s Uniting for Ukraine program, a pathway for Ukrainians fleeing the war to come to the United States. They came knowing only a few English words and a few family members in Roanoke. They have left speaking English fluently and a robust network of friends.

One year in America

Even with the hardship, Jenya said Roanoke began to feel like home. It almost felt too much like home.

“For me, leaving America is so hard,” she said. “Good people came to be in my life. If I stay here one more year, it will be even harder to leave.”

Anna Miroshnychenko, who is related to Jenya’s husband, immigrated to the U.S. more than 10 years ago and settled in the Roanoke Valley. The two women met in college in their hometowns of Nikopol, Ukraine, where Anna introduced Jenya to her cousin, Maksim, now Jenya’s husband.

The family shared life’s mile-

stones virtually over the years.

Anna is a U.S. citizen and lives in Roanoke with her partner, Travis Grunz and their 3-year-old son, Emmett. Anna was pregnant with their second child, Maddox, who’s now 5 months old, when Jenya and Egor came to Roanoke last year.

When the U.S. government launched the Uniting for Ukraine program, Anna became a sponsor for Jenya and Egor through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Grunz’s step-father and a friend of Anna’s were co-sponsors.

“Ten years, I haven’t had my family here, not once,” Anna said. “So it’s very nice to have your family with you and someone who could, you know, talk the language.”

In addition to speaking English, Anna and Jenya know how to speak Russian and Ukrainian, but since the war began they stopped speaking Russian. However, they don’t want to shun all things Russian, as they have friends who are Russian.

Anna’s friend Reagan Valeyev is married to a Russia-born U.S. citizen, Ed. They have two children who are Egor’s age. The couple was helpful and contributed money to help bring Jenya and Egor to the United States.

Reagan and Ed had been teaching their children to speak Russian, with some help from Anna over the years. Their knowledge of the language turned out to be helpful for Egor, who did not speak English when he arrived.

“Egor, when he got here, he didn’t speak any English, but he spoke Russian,” Reagan said. “So, my kids were able to play with him initially. And that was a special thing. I mean, it was equally as big a deal for us, if not even a bigger deal for us. That we had access to a child their age that could speak this other language that we were trying to get them to learn.”

Egor started second grade at Oak Grove Elementary in September. He was scared and struggled while straddling divergent worlds. In the evenings after school, Jenya had her son keep up with his Ukraine studies online, in the hope of returning to a peaceful Ukraine. They also worked on his American homework and practiced English together.

Last fall, Jenya told the newspaper that Egor cried at night but woke up happy.

Mary Branisteanu, Egor’s English Language Learner teacher at Oak Grove Elementary, said it is not uncommon for children to have trouble focusing on school when other struggles are present.

“They don’t ever block it,” Branisteanu said. “You know, because there were some days, the expression on [Egor’s] face would be a concerned look, or maybe just not as rested looking.”

By the end of the school year, Egor was thriving. “When he came, there was none to minimal English,” Branisteanu said.

Anna Miroshnychenko, from left, Egor Shulym and Jenya Shulym share a moment in the kitchen of their Roanoke County apartment on June 23. For the past year Egor and his mom lived with Anna, her partner Travis Grunz and their two children.

Jenya Shulym bakes custard biscuits from scratch on June 23, to raise money to help her fellow Ukrainians back home defending themselves in a war against Russia.

“And he gained steadily, because mom’s support from home and relative support from home, have encouraged this child to learn his new language, full steam.”

Considering what the boy had endured — an escape from war, landing in a new country where he couldn’t understand the language — Egor had done extremely well.

“He is very eager and very kind to the other children,” Branisteanu said. “No one else in the school was Ukrainian last year.

He always kept pushing himself to do better, but he was still a kid.”

A kid who liked phys ed.

“P.E. is my favorite,” Egor said recently, speaking English.

Jenya said for five months after coming to the U.S. she did not sleep well. The horrors from the news haunted her in the stillness of the night and she wor-

ried about her family. She said she eventually had to lessen her media consumption.

“I understand everyone right now is tired to hear about this war, but it’s very important to care and support Ukraine,” Jenya said. “We fight not only for our independence but for all countries.”

Even fun activities could remind her of war.

During July 4 celebrations in Roanoke, Jenya went to River’s Edge Sports Complex to watch fireworks for the first time. She said the sound from the colorful explosions reminded her of the bombing she experienced near her apartment in Enerhodar when the war first broke out.

“I wanted to take beautiful photo, but I was scared because of all the noise,” Jenya said.

She eventually snapped a montage of fireworks photos,

which she posted to Facebook, not mentioning in her post or to her son how the explosions had frightened her.

“You need to support your son, even if you have bad mood, every day you need to be strong and flash your smile,” Jenya said.

“Maybe inside you cry, but I need to be strong for my son.”

Anna said watching what their families were going through made her and Grunz feel grateful for everything they have in the United States.

“It gave us a lot of perspective,” Anna said. “Of what people going through, because Jenya was talking to her mom and Maksim every day telling us what they going through, like not having water and electricity, you know, struggling financially, all of this.

So it definitely give us gratitude.”

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Jenya, who had graphic design and photography experience, landed a job at 5Points Creative, a marketing and advertising agency in Roanoke. She had never driven a car, so Anna and Grunz took turns driving her to work, and they took her to the Kirk Family YMCA on weekends where she exercised.

In Ukraine, Jenya walked everywhere and enjoyed going to the market for fresh fruits and vegetables.

The excess of fast food and the lack of walkability where she lived in Roanoke County provided a culture shock for her. “Every day I learn something new for myself,” Jenya said. “And it’s a shocker because you in a new country with new people.”

Anna’s 3-year-old son Emmett had an important year, too, trying to keep up with Egor, the big kid who entered his childhood domain.

“It was a big year for Emmett,” Anna said. “He went from like a baby to like a full grown toddler with Egor. And Egor taught him lots of things. He taught him how to be crazy and brave.”

HEATHER ROUSSEAU PHOTOS, THE ROANOKE TIMES Later, the family of six sat around the dinner table. The con- Egor Shulym, center right, runs around atop Mill Mountain with Emmett Grunz, left, Nikolai Valeyev, center left, and other friends during a picnic versation meandered from work gathering on July 28. to weather to the war. When the discussion of returning to Ukraine came up, Egor left the table. Jenya went upstairs to talk to her son.

“He’s sometimes crying and sometimes he comes to me and ‘Oh mom, hold me because I’m lonely. I miss my dad,’” Jenya said.

But Egor was also torn about leaving Roanoke. “He say, ‘I love for America and I love for all people who stay with me now and my new friends. But I love for my country and I miss it and my toys.’

And then he say, ‘Mom, I support whatever you say.’”

Looking back

A thumb drive filled with family photos was one of the few items Jenya brought with her when she and Egor left Enerhodar, now occupied by Russian forces. Egor was enjoying freestyle wrestling and break dancing. Jenya said she had started a new job, which she had long sought, in the telecommunications and communications department at the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station.

The plant, the biggest in Europe, was captured by Russia early in the war and was cut off from the Ukrainian power grid.

Her husband, Maksim, 38, also worked at the nuclear power station. When the war broke out, Ukraine banned men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country in case they were called to fight. Maksim currently works as an electrician, and has warned Jenya he might have to fight in the war.

The morning Jenya and Egor left their hometown, Jenya was haunted because she forgot to kiss Maksim goodbye during the chaos at the bus station. Their journey to the United States began with a 33-hour bus ride to Zaporizhzhia, usually just a two-hour trip, but which was slowed by numerous Russian checkpoints. Egor sat on Jenya’s lap because they could not afford tickets for two bus seats. Jenya recalls Russian soldiers holding automatic weapons.

“When they approached, Egor tightly squeezed my hand and asked, ‘Mom these soldiers will not kill us today?’” Jenya recalls.

They had no food, water or toilets during the journey. In the dark, the bus windows rattled among sounds of explosions in the night.

After days of travel and multiple flights Jenya and Egor arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport. Egor clutched his brown and white stuffed cat, one of the only items he brought with him from Ukraine. They were greeted with sunflowers and hugs

by Anna, Travis and Emmett.

A bond begins

With a cup of coffee and newspaper in hand on a Sunday morning in November, Bob Schmucker sat in his living room in his Roanoke County home reading an article about Jenya and Egor published in The Roanoke Times.

“When I saw that picture in the paper that day, and I read the story, I was immediately struck by the idea that, you know, this could be any one of my daughters going through this,” Schmucker said.

The more he learned about

Anna Miroshnychenko says goodbye to Egor Shulym on Aug. 13, the morning he left for the airport with his mom to return to Ukraine.

Jenya Shulym does her workout routine at the Kirk Family YMCA in Roanoke on July 6. Pushing herself in the gym was a welcomed distraction from worrying about her family and the war in Ukraine.

their story, the more he was motivated to help make them feel at home in Roanoke. Schmucker reached out to Jenya through the newspaper about what they might want or need. Jenya replied that she just wanted friends.

With Christmas approaching, Schmucker put plans in motion for a yuletide gathering. As general manager of 3rd Street Coffeehouse, a weekly music showcase in the lower level of Trinity United Methodist Church in Old Southwest, he used his party-planning skills and community connections to invite friends with young children to the event.

“The Christmas party had something like 20 people contributing time, presents and love,” Schmucker said.

The party turned into a lasting bond between Schmucker and his new Ukrainian friends.

Schmucker, who has three daughters and one son, considers Jenya and Egor part of the family.

“Jenya is my Ukrainian daughter and Egor is my Ukrainian grandson,” Schmucker said.

The feeling is mutual. “Bob is an angel,” Jenya said, adding that her father died when she was 16 and she believes he is still watching over her and sent Schmucker to help her. Jenya and Egor also grew close with Schmucker’s wife, Denise.

Jenya told Schmucker that she really needed a job. He recognized her artistic talents and put her in touch with Bruce C. Bryan, founder and president of 5Points Creative.

She was hired as a graphic designer and photographer for the agency.

“It’s maybe my dream job,” Jenya said.

Bryan said the 20-person firm will have Jenya as their only employee working internationally.

The team figured out how to make it happen, and Jenya will be working on an Eastern time zone schedule while in Ukraine.

With a job and new friendships forming, Roanoke started to feel like a home.

“And now I really very happy,” Jenya said. “It’s helped me feeling more better and I don’t have time to think about something bad and my country.”

problems, but parenting from a distance was not sustainable.

Anna said she is impressed with the progress Jenya and Egor made in a short time.

“I can tell how much stress Jenya has lately because when it’s coming to the end and it’s bittersweet, you know,” Anna said. “It’s good to reunite with your family but then she’s leaving all this behind that she’s working so hard for a full year.”

The Decision

The Uniting for Ukraine program allows participants to stay in the United States for up to two years. After almost a year of living in Roanoke, Jenya wavered on

her decision to return home but ultimately decided in early June to purchase plane tickets for her and Egor to return to Ukraine. The following day, on June 6, an attack on the Kakhovka Dam flooded Jenya’s hometown of Nikopol, killed more than 50 people and left the region with no drinking water.

“I buy [airplane] tickets but every night I think if it’s be good for me and my son, or no?” Jenya said.

Jenya said the horror of the war is weighing on her family. She said there is still no running water in Nikopol, because of the destruction of the dam. Jenya said her 62-year-old mother and 87-yearold grandmother still hear bombing every day and her mother walks multiple times a day to get drinking water distributed at a local school or church. Jenya said government trucks provide water for washing needs, and volunteer organizations give the drinking water. She wants to be able to help her family and friends in person. She wants to walk the barren reservoir and clean up the garbage left behind by flooding.

She looks through images that friends posted on social media of bombed buildings, and of people who lost their homes in Nikopol.

The son of one of her friends lost a leg in a bombing attack. She said one of the fundraising efforts led

by Ukrainians of the Roanoke Valley hopes to help to purchase him a prosthetic leg.

She felt guilty living safely in Roanoke while friends suffered.

“It’s very hard for me to be here in a safe place and my family in this region [Nikipol] with missiles every night and every time when you wake in the morning and call them to figure out if they are alive or not,” Jenya said.

Even while surrounded by family and new friends, she felt alone without the support of her husband. In Roanoke, she faced every day with a reminder of what she left behind in Ukraine, as she watched Anna and Travis work as a team caring for their children and helping her and Egor.

Jenya and Maksim did all they could to keep in touch. They used FaceTime every day and on their 13th wedding anniversary, half a world apart, Jenya celebrated by ordering a cake from a local baker in Ukraine and had it delivered to her husband. Jenya said Maksim encouraged her and Egor to smile and learn English and he helped reprimand Egor when she had

Farewells

Egor ran atop Mill Mountain Park picnic area with rambunctious friends throwing sticks around the grassy hill. It was all in good fun until a flying stick struck a kid in the ear. Egor ran over and put his arm around his tearful friend.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

Ukrainians, Russians and Americans gathered near the park’s lower overlook for a farewell picnic for Jenya and Egor. A welcomed breeze was a relief to the hot and sticky summer day in late July. Schmucker pointed out approaching storm clouds in the distance and as the wind picked up and the sky darkened. Everyone gathered their grub at the exposed table and ran for cover.

Safely settled beneath the picnic shelter, Egor sat on a railing eating corn on the cob. There was a loud rumble and flash in the sky.

“Lightning,” Egor exclaimed.

Then the downpour began.

“It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring,” Egor sang, showing off his English.

The clouds dispersed just in time to see the sun set, the crew gathered at the overlook looking at the city lights below.

“Is Ukraine that way?” Egor asked as he pointed toward the East.

The picnic was one of many farewell gatherings Jenya and Egor had, giving them a chance to appreciate all they had been through and overcome.

Egor reflected on the past year.

“I had fun,” he said. When asked what he was proud about he said, “That I learned how to roller skate.”

Departure day was Aug. 13.

Schmucker and his wife arrived at the apartment to see off Jenya and Egor. Schmucker was taking them back to Dulles International Airport, where their American journey began almost one year ago.

Egor ate a slice of pizza, watching as Jenya embraced Denise and started to cry. “Mom, don’t cry,”

Egor said.

Egor once again had to leave toys behind. He showed his mom a small box of Roblox Legos.

“Please, mom?”

“No we are not bringing that,” Jenya replied.

“America for Egor is very good steps for his future and I am really happy we have time here and he is good speaking with other people,” Jenya said about her son. “He believes in himself, and he is not shy.”

Egor clutched the same stuffed cat he brought to America from Ukraine and climbed into Schmucker’s car. Seated in the passenger seat, Jenya had tears in her eyes and tried to smile as she and Egor waved goodbye to Anna, Travis and Emmett, who waved back. Jenya looked back one last time as the car drove away from the peaceful quiet apartment complex. They were going home.

Epilogue

Jenya and Egor stopped in Germany to visit friends. When they return to Ukraine on Monday, they plan to reunite with Maksim and stay with him and his parents in Zaporizhzhia. They cannot get back to their home in Enerhodar, which is still under Russian occupation.

Since they left the United States there has been news of escalated fighting in the Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine along with heightened warnings in recent days from the Ukraine government that Russia is threatening to blow up the nuclear power plant.

“This week is very hard and every day in news you see something not good,” Jenya said.

“I say to Maksim if you wants me to come to Ukraine I can’t read more news.”

“He really worries about my feelings, he think maybe we not make right choice,” Jenya said.

He worries about me and Egor but wants to be together, it’s hard.”

“Egor is happy here but I don’t know how he’ll be when we go back. He made so many friends in America,” Jenya said.

Heather Rousseau, a photojournalist for The Roanoke Times since 2015, is the 202223 Secular Society Fellowship recipient. Her work is focused on refugees and immigrants in the Roanoke region.

Heather Rousseau (540) 981-3394 heather.rousseau@roanoke.com