Stuck between death and life

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, June 26th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: beginning a new life in a new country.

For two years, Ukraine has been embroiled in a war with neighboring Russia, and heavy losses have left many in the country increasingly fearful.

EICHER: Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and recruiters use aggressive tactics to enlist more troops to fill in behind them, going door-to-door and canvassing stores, often dragging away the unwilling.

WJI Mid-Career graduate Jessica Eturralde spoke to one young Ukrainian man who escaped and is now trying to make a life for himself in America.

TARASIUK: [Speaking Ukrainian]

KOROLCHUCK: Basically darkness…darkness. You just hear sounds outside, but you wasn’t sure what was going on. You were just huddled in the dark.

JESSICA ETURRALDE: Just over a year ago, on a sunny February morning, 25-year-old Davyd Tarasiuk paid to smuggle himself out of Ukraine.

Demoralized from watching Russia demolish his homeland and fearing he would be drafted to join the frontline, Tarasiuk made a choice he never thought he would make. He chose to leave Ukraine forever.

When the time came, he met in secret and hid himself among boxes and blankets in the back of a hard-covered truck as it carefully crossed the Hungarian border.

Tarasiuk is among over 20,000 combat-eligible men who have illegally escaped Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022. To maximize forces, Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 are forbidden from leaving the country.

After crossing the border, Tarasiuk navigated through four countries before settling in the United States under the Uniting for Ukraine program. A family connection brought him to Western North Carolina, where he took refuge with Ukrainian-American Igor Korolchuck.

Now, over 5,000 miles east and far from danger, Tarasiuk—who only speaks Ukrainian—explains his decision as Korolchuck translates.

KOROLCHUCK: Davyd, say ‘Hi. I’m Davyd.’ [Laughter]

Here there are no bombs. No sirens. No smoke.

As Tarasiuk shares the details leading up to his decision to flee, Korolchuck rests his left arm around the back of Tarasiuk's chair.

KOROLCHUCK: Our choice is kind of between you knowing that you would have to go fight in a war or you're just taking a step of faith you know, trying to see if you could take a better path. I just don't want to die, you know.

When war first broke out in February 2022, many Ukrainians rushed to volunteer themselves to push back Putin’s army at the frontline. But well after two years of grinding combat, those troops are either still fighting, dead, or significantly maimed.

AUDIO: [Tarasiuk speaking in Ukrainian]

KOROLCHUCK: When you see that people start dying and there's no, there's no results, it's not getting better - it’s getting worse and a lot of these kids they just, you know, after first couple months of the war, they just, you just realize that it's, you know, you're dying for nothing.

Tarasiuk is moving on with his new life in America, but back in his hometown of Revine, he left his expectations of a future in Ukraine. He left behind his father and mother. He left 25 years worth of relationships. He left his church and his soccer team. When he chose to board the back of that truck, he knew he was killing his life to save it.

KOROLCHUCK: You're excited about going to America, but at the same time, by you taking that step, you know that you could never come back.

A poll of adults living across Ukraine, conducted last April, showed that just a little over half said “no one wants to die” and that they understood where draft evaders are coming from. But in the same poll, just under half of all respondents said they were ashamed of the men who evade mobilization.

KOROLCHUCK: Mentally, it's hard. Because a lot of people, probably half of the people there, look at them as as traitors, you know.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy signed new mobilization laws to direct Ukraine's men to return and fight. While experts predict the long-awaited $61 billion in U.S. military aid will bolster Ukraine's defenses, it will only help so much if there aren’t enough trained soldiers to operate them.

Although Ukraine's allies disagree on how much to get involved, they all agree that Ukraine must not lose.

But the ideas on how to support the underdog country vary among leaders, and in the United States, Americans have grown weary of the subject.

Korolchuck encourages people to seek God’s providence.

KOROLCHUCK: Nobody expected Ukraine to hold up against Russia, so at the end of the day, I think victory is always going to be behind God. If it's God’s will, there, there will be victory. And I know a lot of people stand on that and whether they prophesy that or proclaim that.

AUDIO: [Tarasiuk speaking in Ukrainian]

As for Tarasiuk, he says his life is only in America now. He hopes nothing changes his chances of staying. Tarasiuk has applied for re-parole which would grant him another two-years in the United States.

KOROLCHUCK: He says, also like the language barrier and cultural kind of differences. That's one of the things that kind of still, he's trying to get a hang of.

And he’s struggling to find his purpose. He sees how people live in the United States. They work, they spend money, they earn more—constantly trying to earn, earn, earn.

KOROLCHUCK: He's like, my, one of my concerns is to, you know, realize the purpose that I'm here for and to live out something bigger than just to take care of, you know, my own things.

He adds that it's hard to imagine his mission because he doesn’t feel like he’s even on the road. He thinks a lot about school and starting a family, but he doesn’t know whether or how either will happen.

Korolchuck gives him a hardy pat on the back.

KOROLCHUCK: We’ll get him a wife. [Laughter]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jessica Eturralde.

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