This story is part of a KYW Newsradio series looking back on how the war in Ukraine continues to affect the Philadelphia region a year after the Russian invasion.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After Russia's invasion began a year ago, many people fled Ukraine, including a professor who made her way to Philadelphia with the help of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Northern Liberties.
Alla Pukhtetska and her colleague Veronika Matviienko have been living at the cathedral since they arrived last year. Since then, Pukhtetska says, she has been adjusting to life in America while staying present for her students back home.
On a recent February morning, as usual, Pukhtetska had already been awake for hours overnight, talking to her Ukrainian students. This was what she calls the American portion of her day.
“Due to modern technologies, we can continue this lecturing and they can get their diplomas,” she said.
Pukhtetska has virtual classes at 2 a.m., 3:40 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. as an active law professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Her male students are in Ukraine. Men are not permitted to leave the country. Many of the female students are elsewhere.
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“Only girls have the ability to cross the border, especially if they have children,” Pukhtetska said. “They’re supported in Poland, Britain, Germany and France. Everywhere they’re present.”
And when the women did go back home for brief periods, they told their professor how difficult it was to focus.
“They said that the conditions are really awful because they don’t have stable electricity,” she said.
But they carry on, and Pukhtetska does too with her colleague Veronika Matviienko. They have been living at the St. Nicholas Cathedral since they arrived last year. At first, they were afraid to leave the church. The loud city noises were emotionally triggering. But a month or so later, church members wanted to take them somewhere special.
“They invited us to the wonderful Museum of Art in Philadelphia. It was very, very bright impression. Because in Kyiv, of course, we also have a lot of museums, wonderful historical monuments and — this is real healing.”
Since then, they have been active — advocating for Ukrainian parents who wanted to enroll their children in school, helping with a refugee center the church opened in the Northeast. Pukhtetska even produces Bishop Luke Zhoba’s new radio show.
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Pukhtetska says that work, and all the open arms in Philly, helps to ease her pain.
“When you escape from war, you don’t value yourself. You think your enemies — they don’t need you, they want to kill you. And it is a very difficult process to come back to this understanding that you’re a member of the society. And all those smiles, all those kind attitudes, all the [volunteer work], all those children — the kind attitude heals you.”
