For Inna Adamovich, the phone calls with her mother have been challenging since the war in Ukraine began. The Russian propaganda machine has driven a wedge between a mother, living in Russia, and a daughter, living in Austin. The war has had a similar effect on Adamovich’s relationships with her brother, nephews, and some of her Russian-speaking friends in the United States.
“I lost all the relationships with my family in Russia, because they fully support the war,” she said. “It just happened overnight, from normal people, who have traveled the world, who had been to America many times.”
Adamovich grew up in the Soviet Union (modern-day Russia). She went to college in Moscow and met her now-husband Alexander in January 1988. They married by December of that year, but the pair saw a limited future in the Soviet Union. For one thing, the Chernobyl disaster had cast a shadow over Alexander’s field of nuclear engineering, and he wanted to work with computers anyway.
The couple decided to move to the U.S. in 1991, with hopes of building a better life for their children. Inna took up work as a sonographer and Alexander worked as a software developer. After 30 years in Maryland, the Adamovichs moved to Austin in 2021 in search of something new. “We were falling in love with Texas for a while,” Inna said. “We love this area. Hill Country, Austin, Johnson City, everything. We love Texas.”
Then, Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. They immediately opposed the war, but it would not be until May of that year on a trip to Oslo, Norway, that their plan to support Ukraine began to form. On the trip, they met a few Ukrainians and attended a rally celebrating the Ukrainian holiday Vyshyvanka Day. “We decided that next year, no matter what, we will go to Kyiv for that day,” Alexander recalled.
Prior to traveling to Ukraine in May 2023, a friend in Ukraine told Alexander to bring tourniquets, a device used to stop bleeding. On the way home from that trip, they stopped in Krakow, Poland. After a visit to a museum, the couple sat on a bench and decided they wanted to make their operation official. From that bench, they submitted an application to become a nonprofit called STAYWITHUKRAINE INC.
“I lost all the relationships with my family in Russia, because they fully support the war.” – Russian-born Austinite Inna Adamovich
Since then, they have fallen into a routine. They raise about $25,000, load up 500 pounds of equipment in 10 to 12 pieces of luggage, and travel to Kyiv roughly every two months. Inna taps into her network in the medical field, picking up supplies from Ally Medical ER, Physician Premier ER, and other hospitals. Inna and Alexander have been to Ukraine seven times since the war began, always responding to the evolving needs, bringing everything from hemostatic bandages to decompression needles to gurney-like vehicles that can be used to ferry injured people on the front lines back to ambulances and hospitals.
Some donors have expressed wariness about giving money because of concerns over corruption in Ukraine, according to Inna. “I will deliver everything myself to Ukraine, and then over there we already know people who will be standing right on the ground in the front line,” Inna said.
One of the people that they know in Ukraine is Dr. Viktor Oshovskyy, an obstetrician gynecologist based in Kyiv. Oshovskyy said most doctors in his field have continued with business as usual. Women continue to have babies after all. “I admire how brave they are,” he said of the people having children.
Another small chunk are serving in the military, whom Oshovskyy lauded for their courage. He added that the group is exhausted. “If sometimes I feel exhausted, I just say to myself, ‘Well, guy, they are exhausted … How can you be exhausted? Just rise your ass and go to work,’” he said.
He continues his work as a doctor, but he balances that with volunteer work supplying the medics on the front lines. He also volunteers at stabilization points, where he helps stop the bleeding of the wounded, stabilizing them so they can be moved to a hospital.
Oshovskyy has a vivid memory of meeting Alexander and Inna for the first time. “We went to the railway station, and these beautiful people got out from the train, and I saw like 11 big bags, like suitcases, and my heart started to beat fast,” he said. “When Inna said I can give half to you, I was just extremely happy, and in the next days, we sent everything to the places where it was needed.”
He said that Inna’s commitment to Ukraine goes beyond bringing supplies. She visits the square where flags represent fallen soldiers and seeks out conversations with the mothers of those soldiers. Oshovskyy hopes that ordinary Americans, like the Adamovichs, will continue to support Ukraine, and said he is grateful for how they have pushed the U.S. government to fund the war effort.
The Adamovichs have also collaborated with groups locally, including JC Clapsaddle, who has done extensive volunteer work supporting Ukraine as a part of the Rotary Club of San Antonio. Clapsaddle saw the STAYWITHUKRAINE INC website and figured they could get discounts if they started ordering things together. The Adamovichs have also partnered with the Rotary Club to bring used vehicles packed with supplies from the United Kingdom to Ukraine.
Clapsaddle expressed frustration with how the U.S. government has wavered in its support for Ukraine. “We starved them of weapons, and when America does that, other countries start looking around and saying, ‘Well, if America’s out of this game, what’s going to happen?’” he said. “They really suffered during that time.”
But he added that there’s a simple way for people to support the effort: cash. He said a high school in Mason City, Iowa, gave him $250. “I showed them the stack of flour and food and cooking oil that 250 bucks [can buy], and it’s significant.”
This article appears in Best of Austin 2024 and Best of Austin 2024 (Insert).