VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Friday marks one year since Russia began its full-scale attack on Ukraine.
With no end to the bloodshed in sight, Ukrainian natives are exhausted, including Virginia Beach resident Valentyna Sonmezler.
"We live for today because we didn't know if tomorrow is going to come," said Sonmezler. "Almost 250 years ago, one of [America's] leaders said, 'Give me liberty or give me death.' That's what Ukrainians say today."
Sonmezler has lived in Virginia Beach for half a decade. Walking into her home, you'll find Ukraine's national flower, the sunflower, hanging from her door. You'll find her home country's flag hanging in the living room, and photos of her family on the mantel.
"My whole family is over in Ukraine," she said. "Nobody expected this war to last a year. This changed us forever."
News 3 first met Sonmezler at a peaceful rally along the Virginia Beach Oceanfront when the war began last year. Now, 365 days later, The United Nations estimates that the Russian Army has killed or injured 17,994 innocent Ukrainian civilians.
Some of them were Sonmezler's friends. It's a loss she says she deals with every day.
"Some of them got killed," she explained. "When Russia came to my city, everybody who consider themselves as Ukrainians, they were mostly killed. Those who did not have a car, or who could not just [leave] in time and they got stuck, most of those men got killed. Most of those women were raped."
Within the last year, Sonmezler's apartment in Bucha, Ukraine was the target of a missile attack as the Russian army progressed toward Kyiv. Sonmezler's mom had just picked up the keys.
"It was just so scary to see those tanks driving next to my apartment," she said, recalling watching war rage throughout her hometown on her television screen. "My apartment got some missiles. Actually, it was three missiles that hit our building."
In September, Sonmezler gained a new visitor to her Virginia Beach home, her mom.
"I could not believe she's here," she said.
Sonmezler says her mother was holding out in a Ukrainian countryside village after being unable to move into Sonmezler's new apartment in Bucha. But eventually, Sonmezler's mother wasn't able to stay in Ukraine at all as the war expanded, and booked a one-way flight to the United States in September.
"You would hear the rockets and missiles flying overhead and you don't know where it's going to fall," Sonmezler translated for her mother. "It's pretty scary. It could fall on your home."
Sonmezler says a wave of relief washed over her the second her mother landed in Washington, DC, but understand her mom's desire to eventually return to her garden in Ukraine.
"Some evenings she says she's going to go back and I say, 'Where are you going to go mom? There is still a war. It didn't get better.'"
While Sonmezler may take comfort knowing her mother is sleeping in her guest room, her brother continues fighting on the front lines.
"When we are talking about the army, we see the unit," she explained. "But let's look closer. Those are people. Those people are like my brother."
Sonmezler says her brother is a father who never planned to join the military.
"I know those people, I know they're good people, they were never in the army before Russia started thr invasion, but they had to go," the Virginia beach resident explained. "They had to leave their kids, their families, their parents, their homes. And they're in that freezing land outside. They're sleeping outside. But the only reason they do that is to protect their motherland."
In constant communication with her brother, Sonmezler believes the war on Ukrainians has become a genocide.
"Ukraine is facing a genocide," she said, sternly. "We understand it very clearly. If you're being killed for wearing our colors, blue and yellow, and for speaking the Ukrainian language, that's what we call genocide. How else we can understand it?"
While we were visiting Sonmezler's home, a charity group from the Eastern Shore stopped by. They were dropping off boxes of clothes for newly orphaned Ukrainian children.
Sonmezler says these acts of generosity happen often, emphasizing that people right here in Hampton Roads are making a big difference overseas.
"You might not hear it, you might not see it here. But if you would go to Ukraine, and you would say that you're from America, we would just hug you," said Sonmezler as she started tearing up. "My words cannot express how much appreciation I feel for you, for this country. We love America. You give us chance."
America, Sonmezler says, provides her with a sense of hope and pride that has sustained her during a war that has ravaged her homeland.
"I feel so proud of my nation. I never felt that proud before. I never before felt proud to be Ukrainian. And now I'm proud to say I'm Ukrainian," she explained. "And I'm proud to say it here in America...as you fought in the past for your freedoms, that's what we do today."
We asked Sonmezler if she ever thinks she and her mom will ever return to their apartment in Bucha. "Yes, yes I do," she responded, definitively.
While the past 362 days have at times been agonizing, Sonmezler says she no longer lives in fear. Now, she says, she lives in hope.
"This is the first time we feel we can do it," Sonmezler explained. "We can go through this challenge because freedom is not for free, right?"
Sunday, February 26, Sonmezler is helping Tetiana Rekun and the Ukrainian diaspora of Hampton Roads to host another peaceful rally in Town Point Park in Norfolk. While they are collecting donations, the Ukrainian native says just people's presence and support is enough. You can find more information on the rally here.
