It’s still not good – but it’s better.
Serhii Bahdasariants being down to one wristwatch, that is.
In the immediate days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago, he was walking about Morgantown with two such timepieces.
One was set to U.S. time.
The other was synchronized to the wall clock in his mother’s kitchen in Kharkiv.
“I’m looking at that watch when she’s sleeping,” the WVU doctoral student in biomedical sciences said then.
“I need to know where the troops are,” he continued. “In case I have to call her.”
Which is why he was physically and emotionally exhausted during those days.
Never mind a full slate of classes and lab time for research.
He wasn’t just awake during the day. His eyes were also propped open, at all hours at night, to account for the time difference.
Monday was the third anniversary of the day Putin’s tanks began churning the earth at the Ukrainian border.
The third anniversary of the day bullets, bombs and missiles began delivering death in waves to a country – which was no stranger to fighting for its very democratic existence.
Bahdasariants was among the members of the Ukrainian Community of Morgantown who gathered at the WVU Mountainlair that afternoon to sing patriotic songs while celebrating a place where the phrase, “Slava Ukraini” – Glory to Ukraine – is both a greeting and a call to arms.
“This has been such a welcoming place,” Bahdasariants said.
WVU and Morgantown, with their shared Ukrainian connections, he means.
By geopolitical definition, the Ukrainian Community of Morgantown is a loose-knit group of WVU professors, students and other kindred spirits – with either direct ties to Ukraine or just plain empathy for a country not willing to give up its real estate or identity (again) to Russia.
Khrystyna Pelchar preferred to focus on geography and not politics – even if she is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science here.
Pelchar, who hails from Lviv, has a sister in medical school there. Her mother was able to get out of the country some months back and now lives with her in Morgantown.
“The good people of West Virginia are so caring,” she said.
For her, it doesn’t matter if it’s Trump, and Putin – and Trump again.
“Administrations might change but people stay the same,” she said. “Ukrainians don’t stop fighting. We’re used to this.”
Bahdasariants, whose research deals with the repair of nervous systems after paralyzing injuries, wants to go back home to put his training to use, he said.
“I can work in both places,” he said.
