E S CAP E F R O M HO ME :
PUC Alum and Family Flee Ukraine
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ISTOCK.COM/IPUWADOL
he night before his country was invaded, Andrey Gulko went to bed early. He and his family had returned from a business trip to the Netherlands. Back to their house with their own dishes, towels, and comfortable beds. Back to the daily routine. Back to their normal life. With three children under 10, normal life for the Gulkos was busy. They barely had time to recoup after their trip. Two days went by. It was a Wednesday, and they still hadn’t unpacked. The first time he awoke was to the phone ringing. It was his neighbor, anxious and worried about the tense situation with Russia. Still groggy, Andrey put his neighbor off until the morning. There had been rumors for months, but nothing had happened yet. Andrey hung up. He closed his eyes and once again let the waves of weariness pull him back into sleep. The second time he was jolted awake by the sound of loud blasts and rattling windows. It was 4 a.m. Andrey and his wife looked at each other. It was actually happening. It was happening now. In the midst of an international crisis Andrey and his family, along with millions of other Ukrainians, suddenly found themselves at the center of a crisis that had been escalating for years. Eight years before, in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered unmarked troops to invade and annex Crimea, a southern peninsula of Ukraine, in a hostile response to the country’s recent flex of power. A wave of protests and demonstrations broke out across Ukraine. That movement culminated in the Revolution of Dignity. Ukrainians ousted their pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and set up a pro-Western government. Putin used similar tactics in the Ukrainian region of Donbas. But that effort devolved into a simmering conflict between Ukrainians and Russian-backed separatists. Twenty-nine ceasefires failed to hold. For years, the situation remained a stalemate.
40 Pacific Union Recorder
Pacific Union College
