SAN DIEGO — An Escondido business owner and father is on the ground in Eastern Europe trying to help Ukrainians and make sure his family is safe as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.
Oleksandr Shumishyn has been in the Moldova, a country on the western border of Ukraine for about a week delivering humanitarian assistance.
He's safe there the capitol of Moldova but he says most of his family and friends are in Ukraine and the situation is dire. "It seems that everyone is prepared to die. Or at least, prepared to fight," said Olex.
Olex – as he prefers to be called – said as he talked via Zoom on the streets of Chisinau, Moldova on the western border of Ukraine.
He lives in the college area of San Diego and has family including a nine-year-old daughter living in Ukraine.
"There are a couple of major cities separating the Russian army from where my daughter lives. Since then, one of those cities has fallen but the other one, Mykolaiv is standing strong. My mother in law is in Moldova right now so we were able to get her out. A lot of people have left, mainly women and children but everybody I know in Odessa, they're there," said Olex.
When asked how he was handling the state of the invasion while his family was at risk, Olex shared, "At this point, I am emotionally numb. I've exhausted my emotional threshold."
Olex says they've been on the ground doing what they can to offer humanitarian assistance like giving rides to refugees looking for safety. He and a friend are also buying and delivering medical supplies which are running low in hospitals across the region.
"The main city in Moldova, Chisinau, is 150 kilometers from the border so we would try to make our trips the most efficient. We would buy it in the morning, drive to the border, drop off the food and then pick up some refugees and take them to either a shelter or an address they were given by the volunteers locally," Olex said.
However, Olex says humanitarian aide has been cut off from crossing the border leaving him and other civilians on the ground powerless to help. Meanwhile, everything around him is getting more expensive.
"Moldova used to be very affordable. Now they have prices more expensive than California. Before this, rent for $150 per month, and now they're renting it out for $150 per day." However, Ukrainians and others in the region are resilient Olex shared.
"Regular people, regular families accepting refugees into their homes for free and feeding them for free. People are making their peace with it and accepting it as 'It is what it is.' If we have to fight, we have to fight. What am I going to do? My home is here. My business is here. I've lived here all of my life. I'm not going to go anywhere.' And in that sense it's kind of inspiring because everyone is unified."
As the cost of helping skyrockets, Olex says he plans on coming home to San Diego to rest, regroup and return to Ukraine to help, if possible. "Every day when we get back to the hotel room we just fall down and then we wake up in the morning and then we go again. I'm at the point where my staying here is not efficient financially anymore," said Olex.
All while, Olex is worrying about and doing what he can to make sure his little girl and his other friends and family are safe. "I was trying to be very discreet about what she understands because she's only 9 years old. But she knows everything and understands everything. And this goes for everybody in Ukraine. They're very strong and resilient," said Olex.
Olex owns Murphy Mechanical in Escondido. He says he's thinking of coming back home to San Diego in the next couple of days of this interview because they've hit a snag in their efforts to help on the ground.
However, Olex says he will go back and continue to help wherever and as soon as he can. He has a GoFundMe that he says he's using to help buy medical supplies on the ground and give rides to refugees who need them. If you'd like to donate, click here.
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