How one Ukrainian family finds refuge in Southern Oregon for their children’s future

Everything changed for Olena Zhyvotovska and her husband, Misha Zhyvotovskyi, on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia began an all-out assault on the southeastern port city of Mariupol, where they lived. Olena was getting ready to take her two kids, Kostia and Andrew, to school that day.

“I got a message from the teacher that said, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be good, just maybe for safety, stay at home,’” she said at her new home in Ashland, a city of more than 21,000 residents situated in southwestern Oregon’s Rogue Valley region.

Soon, Olena and Misha could hear bombs falling all around them.

“There were terrible sounds, it was 24 hours a day,” said Olena. “And we stayed there for 24 days, we lived there without light, without internet, without water, without food, without everything — people just survived.”

Related: Bill in Oregon Legislature helps Ukrainian refugees secure housing, driver’s licenses

Misha said he saw Russian soldiers kill children and elderly people in the streets. The couple said they were lucky to survive in a city reported to be almost completely destroyed by Russian bombing.

“That’s why I believe in God and believe in the angel because I don’t know how we survived,” Olena said.

‘It’s like pirates’ territory’

Mariupol was a beautiful city before the war, she said — it is a port city sitting on the banks of the Sea of Azov. Home to nearly half a million people before the war, it was a center for steel manufacturing.

“In the last five years everything was building,” she said. “There were a lot of places we could go: movies, the zoo. We have everything just like here. There was a drama theater down the road, we had a lot of beautiful places.”

After the war broke out, Misha bought an old Soviet-era car. They quickly packed their things, not wanting to get trapped in the city if evacuation routes closed. They left the city about a month after the invasion began.

Misha has family that has been living in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region — where Mariupol is situated — since 2014. Being familiar with life under Russian occupation, he said he didn’t want his kids growing up in that kind of place.

“I know how the rules work in this territory and I don’t want myself or my children to ever live in this situation,” Misha said. “It’s like pirates’ territory — no rules, no nothing.”

Related: Organizer of Oregon Stands With Ukraine helps provide aid shipments, home for Ukrainian family

Olena wasn’t even able to take things like her wedding album or children’s photos.

“We just took important things like documents. One important thing that we took was my stuff for hairdressing. I don’t know why, for me it was very important.”

Hairstyling was one of Olena’s many jobs in Mariupol, along with accounting, being a cashier and working at a post office. She keeps her supplies in a gray-and-green messenger bag filled with scissors, clippers, combs and the cape you wear when getting a haircut. She still cuts her family’s hair, and offers her services for free to friends. That bag is one of the few things Olena brought on their journey to Ashland.

The Zhyvotovskyis left Mariupol, bound for Misha’s aunt’s home in Nerubayka, in central Ukraine. What would usually take less than a day’s travel stretched out over three. Misha said they were stopped at countless checkpoints by Russian soldiers, interrogating them and looking for tattoos that could link him to the Ukrainian military.

“I took my clothes off and they checked for tattoos,” said Misha. “And at one post, they pointed [guns] at my children and asked the children about my name and her name.”

They spent three months in Nerubayka before going to Germany, where other Ukrainian refugees were headed. There, they bounced between a number of refugee camps.

Settling in America

After a couple of months, they got connected with the group Uniting for Ukraine, which helps resettle refugees in the Rogue Valley region.

“For me, I didn’t know what would happen when I came here to the United States. What next? What can I do here?” Olena said.

Ultimately, they decided coming to America was the best option for their kids. When they first arrived in Ashland a little over a year ago, they knew very little English. Olena said volunteers would come to their home every day with food, but the language barrier was difficult.

“For one month I didn’t speak, I just said ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ that’s all,” she said. “Now it’s a little bit better but we need to work [on it].”

Related: Two-time Ukrainian refugee seeks safety in Portland

Olena works at the Luna Cafe at the Ashland Hills Hotel, which she said is an ideal place to practice her English.

“I speak with people every day. For me it’s very good, it’s the best way to learn English,” she said.

Olena said she was also able to work at an accounting office earlier this year, and she’s thinking about going to school here to study accounting.

INTERACTIVE ︱The Zhyvotovskyi family’s journey from Ukraine to the United States

Misha operated a mobile crane at construction sites in Ukraine. He said he enjoys that work, and wants to get his commercial driver’s license so he can drive cranes here. He now works as a forklift operator at gourmet giftseller Harry & David in Medford. He said it’s a good place to practice his English in the workplace, which will help him pass the exams needed to operate cranes.

“We want to stay here. But I maybe want to go back to see my family,” Olena said, thinking about returning to Ukraine after the war.

Related: Ukrainian Americans in Oregon find solace through prayer, song, and protest

Olena’s mother, sister, and her sister’s children are still living in Mariupol, but were unable to leave with her. The lack of access to power and internet in the city left Olena without a way to reach them.

“For maybe one or two months I didn’t have a connection with my family,” she said. “I didn’t know whether they were alive or not. When they got in touch with me after two months, I was very happy to hear that they were alive and everything was good with them.”

‘We want to stay here’

Mariupol was the site of frequent conflicts and changed hands between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists from 2014-2015 during the war in the Donbas.

Olena said the instability of their home in Ukraine further cements the idea of staying here in America permanently.

“I’m very afraid because it’s happened twice and it can happen again,” she said.

Olena said she couldn’t imagine this happening to her just a few years ago. The couple said being able to live safely together as a family is what they’re most grateful for now.

The program that Olena and Misha came to the U.S. under allows them to stay for one more year. They’re looking at applying for temporary protected status under the U.S. immigration service to extend their stay further. The status is granted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for migrants who are unable to safely return to their countries of origin.

On Saturday, Uniting for Ukraine is holding a benefit concert at Grizzly Peak Winery from 1-5 p.m. The concert features a local Ukrainian singing troupe, and proceeds from the event go towards the Ukrainian families who’ve come here.