When Yuliia Stakh, a freshman at Livingston High School, earned a spot on the varsity tennis team, in September – defeating her opponent in third singles – she had been in the U.S. only a couple of months, and had not touched a racket for six months.
Yuliia, her seven-year-old brother, Andrii, and her mother, Viktoriya, left Ukraine in March. Husband and father Nazar remains in Ukraine. He works for a volunteer organization that assists the military in getting supplies.
“We talk to my father every day; every day, we miss him,” said Yuliia.
“We want to see Nazar, but have to wait until the sky is open, when the war is finished and when a man can travel,” said Viktoriya.
Their conversation with the Tribune was punctuated with updates about the Russian attacks on Ukraine. “Today is not a good day,” said Yuliia on Monday. Russia had just unleashed its most widespread strikes yet against Ukraine.
