Photo: David Livingston/Getty
Professional ballroom dancer Karina Smirnoff says the past few weeks have been “very stressful” since Russiainvaded Ukraine, the country of her birth which is still home to friends and family.
“Every early morning starts with checking the phone, speaking to [those in] Ukraine, trying to figure out if we can get some people across the border and to safety,” the formerDancing with the Starspro, 44, told PEOPLE in a recent interview in support ofImmersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine, a Los Angeles exhibit that she’s hosting on the work of 19th-century Ukrainian artist Taras Shevchenko.
While more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since fighting began last month,according to the United Nations, many are unable to leave their homes or choose to stay and resists.
Smirnoff says for those people, she is focused on ways to get them what they need — “whether it’s sending money, whether it’s getting them to a location that has humanitarian port, the corridor where they can get the food, water, clothing, blankets, whatever.”
Unfortunately, she also says, “We’re losing people. I know people who have been killed. I know people who have been lost and unaccounted for.”
David Livingston/Getty
Smirnoff says despite the stress of knowing friends and family still in Ukraine are living a nightmare, she’s grateful to be safe at home in L.A. where she’s raising her son,Theo Gabriel, who isalmost 2 years old, and doing what she can to help.
“You hear people who put their kids alone on the train, at 4, 5, 6 years old, with notes attached to their clothing and decide to stay back, pick up arms and fight,” she says. “You hear stories of courage and of human desire to live free that are like something that you haven’t heard before.”
All proceeds from ticket sales to the Shevchenko exhibit, open in L.A. and other U.S. cities, will be donated to the Red Cross Emergency Relief Fund for Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine Fund,according to organizers.
“It’s the thought that goes through your mind every day,” she says. “It’s the thought that you have before you go to sleep.”
Hearing from friends in hiding with kids Theo’s age is especially hard, Smirnoff says.
“I picture my son being in that situation,” she says. “It’s depressing, it’s heartbreaking, it’s tragic. You feel helpless.”
In the besieged city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, residents have resorted toburying their dead in a mass graveon the outskirts of town in part because there are so many bodies but also because it’s too dangerous for residents to hold funerals for loved ones.
“The circle is closing in,” Smirnoff says of the Russian forces holding the entire city hostage as the number of civilian casualties rises. “They are bombing residential … areas,” she says of Russian attacks in Mariupol. “They are bombing hospitals, kindergartens, schools. At this point, Ukraine looks completely different than what it did a month ago.” (Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian sites.)
Smirnoff says the horror people under attack since Feb. 24 are experiencing is “crazy,” adding that “at the same time, Ukraine has never been more united than it is now.”
She also praises the support she sees through her work with the art exhibit and across the country. “American people are standing united with Ukraine,” she says. “We can’t send the military planes and we can’t close the sky, but all the financial and humanitarian help that has been going to Ukraine has been incredible.”
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues nearly three weeks after their forces launched a large-scale invasion — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
