Student from Newton’s sister city shares thoughts on Russian invasion

Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine came as something of a shock to Andrii Lisovyi, 19, of Smila, a second-year student at Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University, whom I met in Newton’s Sister City on June 4, 2018.

“It really hurts me to realize that I was wrong to say that Russia uses troops around Ukraine’s borders only as geopolitical pressure,” Andrii emailed me after bombings commenced Thursday morning.

“Political truth: at 5 a.m. Russia brazenly and without declaring war launched missile strikes throughout Ukraine, from Kyiv to Ivano-Frankivsk,” he said.

On Feb. 22, Andrii “unexpectedly” arrived in Cherkasy, the capital city of Iowa’s sister state, where his sister, Myroslava Kozachenko, teaches English.

Two days later, he arrived in Kamianka, a town 30 kilometers from Cherkasy, where Myroslava’s in-laws live.

“I was woken up in the morning by my sister, to whom I came from Kyiv to Cherkasy for a few days. She said: ‘Wake up, martial law has been declared.’ My heart rate rose sharply, I remembered that my heart rate monitor read 160.

“We were all very nervous, but there was no panic,” the American Studies student told me. “I am really proud of Ukrainians: we have clearly learned the lessons of the past and this time we met the threat with a proper reaction.”

Andrii expressed concern for his girlfriend’s well-being as well as that of his other friends who are now in Kyiv. From the start, he said, they reported hearing explosions in the vicinity of Ukraine’s capital.

Ukraine’s armed forces have been “very active” in repelling attacks by Russian regular troops, Andrii reported, as “now Russia has shown its true face: it is an aggressor and does not seek peace.”

“Their military is brazenly killing and invading our territories, trying to break into major cities: Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and even Kyiv,” he said. “Yesterday they captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (which exploded in 1986).”

However, Andrii asserted, “the Ukrainian military is fighting with dignity against the enemy. Yesterday, the main airfield was repulsed, to which Russia sent as many as 18 landing planes to capture Kyiv.”

Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said:

“Ukraine needs more than ever the consolidated assistance of the collective West: NATO, the EU, the UN, all countries of the civilized world that live by the values of freedom,” Andrii pleaded. “Ukrainians are dying for freedom in the world, so the world must understand this price and really help us — not just in words, but in real actions. Political actions.”

Andrii Lisovyi, a talented poet, was president of the student parliament at the Lyceum in 2018-19. He was graduated from Lyceum “Leader” in 2020. His mother, Svetlana Lisova, was longtime deputy director of the Lyceum under Sofia Gnedaya. She visited Newton in 2010.

Larry Hurto is a contributing writer for the Newton News.