NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Millions of refugees fled Ukraine when the war broke out. Many people fled to New York.
Victoriia Alimpiieva left Kiev with her two young children the day the war started.
A harrowing journey that led to a four-month stay in Poland before arriving in Coney Island where her grandmother lives.
"Now we tried to have a new life, new job and new school and new kindergarten and so it's not easy," she told 1010 WINS.
With help from the Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurt, she found schools for her 9- and 4-year-olds, support and even a job as a pre-school assistant teacher, but she worries for her family still in Kyiv.
"We speak every day," Alimpiieva added. "We try to find [some] happiness."
Recently, her husband was finally able to join them. She said she just hopes the war comes to an end.
Friday marked the somber anniversary of Russia's invasion, which upended Ukrainian lives and Europe's security.
"We have been standing for exactly one year," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement released on social media. Feb. 24, 2022, he said, was "the longest day of our lives. The hardest day of our modern history. We woke up early and haven’t fallen asleep since."
Ukrainians wept at memorials for their tens of thousands of dead — a toll growing inexorably as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine in particular. Although Friday marked the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, combat between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian troops has raged in the country’s east since 2014.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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