Mike Wolanin | The Republic Ukrainian exchange student Ivan Bondar poses for a portrait at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Bondar came to Columbus East as an exchange student from Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Ukrainian foreign exchange student Ivan Bondar starts each morning the same way.
“Every day I’m waking up, and the first thing that I’m doing is grabbing my phone and calling my mom as quick as possible,” said Bondar, who is attending Columbus East as a junior. “Just to understand there are no bombs around, no sirens around, people are not going to the shelter, to understand that she’s at least as safe as possible in this type situation. … Only after that I can just start to live my daily life.”
He found out about the Russian invasion from his mother a week ago. He was video chatting with a friend and decided to call her. Upon doing so, he learned that she had been woken up by bombs during the first night of invasion by Russia.
“That was the first night,” he said. “I was panicking so much. I was just shaking. And I’m still shaking in the night sometimes now too.”
Bondar is from Odesa. Before coming to the U.S., he lived there for three years, and his family is there now.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that officials and residents are expecting a major attack on the port city, which has seen some “sporadic rocket attacks” so far.
While Russia is trying to attack Odesa, Bondar feels it is safer than other cities and well-defended. But in other places such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, where Ivan has friends and relatives, the situation is worse.
“You can hear the words ‘I love you, goodbye, please pray for us’ almost every day, because it’s just a nightmare,” he said. “They’re shooting the city buildings, not even only the military stuff … schools, hospitals, buildings — like city buildings, where people just live — are getting exploded because of the bombs dropped from the planes or just from the missiles.”
“I’m looking only at the facts,” he said. “And the fact is, right now, Russia is invading my country.”
He said that Ukraine’s major cities are being defended well.
Still, the future remains uncertain, especially for Bondar and other students like him.
“All of us had a lot of plans about education, about getting the degrees, about going to the universities and stuff when we’ll be back home,” he said. “But with this situation, nobody even know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Students are trying to figure out what happens after the school year ends, but all they can do, for now, is wait. If the war continues, Bondar may have no choice but to stay in the U.S. under provisions for political shelter and asylum.
If he does return to Ukraine during the war, he may be mobilized to fight, he said.
Bondar said he feels lucky to be in the United States right now and is trying to help however he can. He’s been organizing fundraising at East and telling people about how to donate to humanitarian organizations, the military or directly to his family. Other exchange students are doing the same.
“I just want to help the situation, and that’s what all of us are doing right now,” said Bondar.
In addition to donating, the “most basic thing” people can do to help is to keep talking about the invasion and sharing the news.
“I don’t want to stay calm, and I don’t want to stay silent about it,” he said. “It’s a big problem that everyone in the world should look at right now, just because it will take all of the world.”
