Saturday 26 February 2022

UC Berkeley scientist fears for family, friends in Ukraine

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A Bay Area scientist fears for her friends and family in Ukraine.

She was born there but now has lived in the United States for two decades.

The scientist says many people with connections to Ukraine have had very few hours of sleep since the invasion -- staying up at all hours trying to communicate with friends and family there.

"What those people are going through right now is just unimaginable," said UC Berkeley scientist Polina Lishko.

Many Americans continue to see images of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on TV and social media, but for Lishko, it's personal.

"The possibility that anyone from my family, or my dear friends, or any of my countrymen could be killed," she said.

Lishko was born in Ukraine, and she still has family and friends there.

"They're staying. They're trying to survive, they're trying to resist," she said.

She says she's in shock about what is happening.

"We're witnessing a mad man rising, and he needs to be stopped," Lishko said.

Lishko says it's reminiscent of the stories she heard about World War II from her grandfather who fought in the war.

"The moment that Nazi's plane bombed Kyiv, the destruction, it just reminded me exactly of 1941," Lishko said.

She says members of her family who are over 60 tried to join the resistance but were turned away because of their age.

Still, she's proud that they want to fight for their country.

Lishko says for the first time she is starting to have some hope that her country will survive this invasion.

"Amazing bravery, dignity, and resistance of everyone from ordinary people to the president of Ukraine," she added.

She also added that many of the Russian people she knows don't support the invasion.



from KRON4 https://ift.tt/IrNA6bT


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