Ukrainian families, children still forced to find school, church, safety underground

SACRAMENTO -- Life in Ukraine looks different than it did just over a year ago, as this week marks the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Sacramento's Slavic community rallied around refugees who came to the area to escape Russian missiles, bombs, and tanks that have been heard in cities across Ukraine. Many of those refugees have found a respite within the Spring of Life Church in Orangevale originally established by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, primarily Ukraine, more than two decades ago. 

On mass held on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in November, one Ukrainian-American told CBS13 that extended family and friends he knew, still living in Ukraine, were forced to continue with their daily lives but underground. 

Now, on the week that marks the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, families and children continue to go to school, work, and church in basements across cities in regions where Russian troops walk the streets above. 

"It's really traumatic for the children. Being 5,7,12 years old. I'm pretty sure the refugees coming here to Sacramento, to California, they are traumatized by the faces of the real war." said Ruslan Gurzhiy, the Editor-in-Chief of Slavic Sacramento, a Slavic news site aimed at informing the greater Sacramento region's Slavic community.

Gurzhiy has spent time on the frontlines in Ukraine throughout the last year, documenting with interviews, videos, and photos. He shares the updates on Slavic Sacramento as a way to inform and keep refugees up-to-date on the sights and sounds of their country. 

He said he visited dozens of underground areas, or basements, where families lived. In a basement in a Bucha church, he explained, school-aged children sat on blankets on the floor reading and painting. The basement typically used to store pantry items for the church, now a place of safety. 

The church, Gurzhiy said, provides warm meals and water for the families. 

A reality, only refugees who have escaped occupied Ukraine can understand up close, not through retellings or photos and videos.