A Virginia pastor born in Kyiv, Ukraine, has been in contact with aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends who still live there, and he said he’s been hearing “anxiety” from them regarding the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
“I’m getting some messages from friends who are asking for prayers,” said Andrew Moroz, a pastor in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“They’re letting me know that they’re going to take a few days off just to see what happens for the anniversary,” Moroz said. “There’s a little bit of anxiety around ‘what is Russia going to do?’ and ‘what kind of symbolic statement are they going to make?'”
Friday marks one year since Russian tanks began rolling into Ukraine, sending civilians fleeing for basement bunkers and their country’s borders.
Governments around the world imposed stringent sanctions on Russia in an attempt — so far unsuccessful — to pressure President Vladimir Putin to abandon the war.
Against the odds, Ukraine’s military has held its ground, reclaiming control of broad swathes of occupied territory and fending off Russian attempts to advance in the east, where fierce battles are continuing.
“There’s a tension of ‘this thing isn’t over,'” Moroz said. “Nobody knows how it will end, but the people of Ukraine are united. And they’re not giving up anytime soon.”
“For every story I have of somebody that ran away in fear, I have another story of somebody that ran toward the battle,” Moroz said.
Moroz, who moved to the United States in the mid-1990s, has been to Ukraine three times over the past year to help with humanitarian efforts.
He was just in Western Ukraine last month, where he described hearing the “hum of generators” across neighborhoods due to rolling power outages in the region.
“Coffee shops are open, and restaurants are open,” Moroz explained. “People are trying to do business as usual as much as possible, and sometimes that puts them in really dangerous situations because they never know when a missile is going to strike.”
The toll of the human suffering from the war has been staggering — thousands have been killed, and more than 8 million Ukrainians fled abroad.
The economic consequences also continue to reverberate around the world, from the scramble for new energy sources in Europe to higher grain prices in Africa.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
