LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A woman from Lexington is back home after escaping Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
LEX 18 talked with Svitlana Duychak at the beginning of March, just days after she escaped the war.
"I can't calm down," she says. "I can't just stop thinking about it."
Now safe at home in Lexington, Duychak can't get the vision of war in her home country out of her head.
"It feels not real that I'm in a safe place, but there is a war not far away," Duychak said. "It feels so close, somewhere so close you could touch it."
She was in Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv when the invasion began. It took her five days to safely escape. She feels strongly connected with her faith. Therefore, her biggest fear wasn't dying.
"What I was worried about was that I would be wounded," she said.
She says she didn't want to come home to her children that way. Once she was reunited with them, everything still felt too close.
"My kids felt it," she said. "They were talking, 'Mom, just relax.' How can you just relax? You just came from a war zone. Something crazy happened in your life. How can you relax?!"
Duychak credits prayers from friends, family, and even strangers in Kentucky. She feels that helped bring her to safety. She says she's grateful for all who kept her and her family in their prayers.
