For teens such as ourselves, we have not heard or seen coverage on the war for months. However, we have heard first hand of the effects of war from girls our age through the global nonprofit, ENGin, where we were fortunate enough to be paired with Victoria Radysh and Juliana Yanitska to teach them English.
In doing so, we have learned so much regarding Ukrainian culture and found ourselves having so many similarities from what we liked to eat to what we liked to read. If we hadn’t had this experience, we wouldn’t know about how the war personally affected people — specifically teenage girls our age that are so similar to us.
We feel that everyone deserves to hear these untold stories. Not just the stories of destruction and war, but of how the people affected by the war persevered, and continued their lives and passions — and of all things before the age of 18.
This is the story of Victoria Radysh and Juliana Yanitska.
As a 15-year-old, Juliana Yanitska has had to learn to adapt in her small town in Ukraine. Ever since February 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, Juliana’s life has altered drastically: she’s had to experience fleeing to Poland in the beginning of the war, coming back home and hearing air raid alerts daily, and having to re plan her future education.
I had started tutoring Juliana in English through zoom in November of 2021 through the program Eng-In. It had been a few months after we had our tutoring sessions that Russia first attacked Ukraine, which put a pause on our sessions for a couple of weeks. However, Juliana wanted to continue to meet over zoom.
This naturally led to many questions about their situations as life was changing rapidly from week to week. It wasn’t long until the conversations led to a recorded interview. This historic event was important for Ruby and I to document the different experiences of two people in our age group.
Hearing first hand about their experiences of what happened and how it affects them emotionally, mentally and physically really brought the war to life in a much deeper way than it did when reading about it online. They talked about their fears and we were afraid for them.
It’s been almost a couple years since Juliana and I started talking online. I consider her my friend and plan to keep in touch with her even after our tutoring sessions are done.
Arce-Riolo: Can you please state your name and age?
Yanitska: My name is Juliana Yanitska and I’m 15.
Arce-Riolo: Can you speak a little bit about what the current situation is in Ukraine?
Yanitska: In my specific region, we don’t get a lot of air raid alerts that often. Usually, the east of Ukraine suffers the attacks. We also have one city, Bakhmut, that is getting the most awful battles now. I will say that the situation there is awful. Ukrainians are afraid that Russians will take Bakhmut too. It is sometimes very terrifying because we still don’t know what is happening there. But luckily, Ukrainian media covers a lot of information.
Arce-Riolo: Where are you currently situated?
Yanitska: I’m in the western part of Ukraine and very far away from the war zone. It’s pretty quiet here; the last air raid alert was maybe a few days ago.
Arce-Riolo: How has this situation affected schooling and work?
Yankitska: For me, we have one week of online studying per month. When we have an air raid alert during in-person school, we usually go into our basement. However, I am lucky that my region is pretty safe. In terms of work, my mom still goes in-person to work as usual.
Arce-Riolo: How have the recent events made you and your family feel?
Yanitska: It’s hard to say because now we have become so used to everything. We’ve gotten used to all of the air raid alerts; for example, there were periods of time when we received alerts a few times per day. I know that my grandpa’s cousin’s city was under Russian occupation. He had to leave that city and flee to Poland. There’s a huge difference between how the west is doing compared to the eastern part of Ukraine.
Arce-Riolo: What are your thoughts on your president and how he’s handling the situation?
Yanitska: I know that some parts of Ukraine disapprove of him because of his background as an actor and comedian. However, a lot of people changed their minds about him once the war started over a year ago. I do admire his relentless efforts and perseverance in defending Ukraine.
Arce-Riolo: How have your future plans changed because of this?
Yanitska: My main thing is my education because it’s almost impossible to study here. The air raid alerts and there are just no guarantees. We have no normal education now, even though our area is not a war zone. After I graduate in a year, I hope to study in America or Poland.
Written by Riley Arce-Riolo
At 16 years old, Victoria Radysh fled her village in Stari Kuty Ukraine alone with her sister to the Czech republic due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Once arrived, Victoria started a new school to continue her education in the Czech Republic. However, she could not speak Czech and thus had to learn the language simultaneously while doing her school work that was all taught in Czech.
I met Victoria a year ago. She was visibly smart and also one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and inspired me to continue studying my language in school. I thank her for that, and also teaching me how far hard work can take you.
Now, Victoria tells me she can speak 4 languages and is learning 3 more (and is almost fluent in Czech after a year of learning it. This is the story of Victoria Radysh and her relentless motivation in persevering against all struggles to complete her studies and successfully adapt to a new life.
Robinson: Hello, thank you for meeting with me today. Can you please state your name and where you’re currently staying?
Radysh: My name is victoria and I’m currently staying in the Czech republic in a small town called Brno. It’s near Prague.
Robinson: What aspects of Ukrainian culture do you keep with you and continue the tradition of?
Radysh: We try to celebrate our holidays as much as possible. Czech people don’t celebrate a lot of holidays like we do. So, we try to celebrate holidays like we did back in the Ukraine. That’s probably number one. Then of course we still listen to Ukrainian music, watch Ukrainian television, speak Ukrainian, and eat Ukrainian dishes. There’s this song in English called Carol of the Bells, it is a Christmas song for us and we used to go to people’s houses and sing the song. It’s funny and I like it. We dress up in different costumes, and sometimes they will be funny or scary. I used to do it with my sister and then when I grew up children would come to our house in funny costumes and would sing the Ukrainian song.
Robinson: What do you miss most about your hometown?
Radysh: Our nature and the atmosphere. I used to live in a small town, a village, where I lived next to the forest so I was so close to the trees and the lakes and rivers. The atmosphere was full of kindness. Also the dishes, my grandmother would make the best dishes. And of course my relatives in the Ukraine, I miss them a lot.
Robinson: How are they doing? Are they safe?
Radysh: Yeah, they’re safe since they’re in the western part of Ukraine. But, still, they still have to deal with the war because of electricity problems such as being cut off and it was very bad for them.
Robinson: How did you escape Ukraine?
Radysh: I left alone with my sister, it was before the war started so it was safe. My dad insisted that we leave, I didn’t believe him at first. I was like ‘why, we’re fine’. When we did leave, we got on the bus for 24 hours. It was so exhausting. So many people were escaping so there was lots of traffic. When we arrived in Poland, our parents drove us to the Czech republic.
Robinson: How has the war affected your school and work?
Radysh: It’s affected my school a lot. The first 2 weeks of the war we didn’t have school at all. And I was happy but I shouldn’t have been. But the first day I thought it was Thursday and I would wake up and then my sister would tell me we’re not going to school because of the war and I was like ‘no, you’re joking’. But then the teachers sent a message that we couldn’t go to school and I was happy. But then after looking at the internet I thought to myself ‘oh my god what is happening right now’. So that was a crazy day. And then the two weeks after were the worst because we didn’t know what was happening. And then on the first of March we moved to the Czech republic. I was just glad to be with my parents and safer. We did online school for one month but then I went to a new school in the Czech republic. My one friend had to move to school in Greece and it’s been very hard for her because of such a different school system. But I think she’s doing a great job.
Robinson: Did you not know any Czech when you moved to the Czech republic?
Radysh: I didn’t know anything at all.
Robinson: So how did you learn it so fast?
Radysh: Definitely listening since school lessons were all in Czech. But I’m definitely still learning.
Robinson: Did that affect your passion for learning new languages?
Radysh: I was always interested in learning new languages. Especially English. I don’t love Czech since it’s so similar to Ukrainian, but since similar words have different meanings it is so confusing. Czech grammar is also harder than Ukrainian. And I like German! Since I’m learning it, that was one of my only options. But they only offered me German and Russian and I was like… German please. And they were like do you really want to study German? I was like yes, definitely.
Robinson: What has kept you inspired to keep learning and persevering?
Radysh: I think that I wanted to get along with the other students so they wouldn’t just say that I was just a Ukrainian girl and I don’t speak their languages and have priorities over them and I would just get good grades because of that. That was my first reason, but also I wanted to continue studying to go to university.
Robinson: So you plan to go to university?
Radysh: Definitely university I hope. Specifically business university hopefully. We’ll see how I do on my final exams. Maybe even open my own company.
Written by Ruby Robinson
