PART TWO
Editor’s Note: Slavic Full Gospel Church has helped more than 100 refugee families to resettle to U.S. from war torn Ukraine, mainly in Northeast Ohio. According to the United Nations, 8 million Ukrainians have fled their country due to Russia’s brutal invasion and criminal treatment of civilians. Here are the stories of two of those families. – John Kerezy, author
Roman Kostyuk was a popular singer/songwriter in Ukraine, one of the leaders of the group Green Jolly. The band’s song Razom nas bahato, nas ne podolaty (Together we are many, we cannot be defeated) was selected to represent Ukraine in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest. His wife Veronika was a hairdresser. They’d been together for 14 years, and were raising two children, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
“No one was safe. Missiles and bombs were raining down everywhere when the war began,” says Veronika.
Their eight-year-old son, Artur, was hospitalized while battling a blood infection at the war’s onset in 2022. Although they lived in Ivano-Frankivisk, hundreds of miles from the front lines, it was still difficult and dangerous.
“We could see explosions from the hospital windows,” Roman recalls. “They actually closed the hospitals due to the war, and everybody had to take their children out. We were sent home with very powerful medications to give to Artur to recuperate from his infection. Fortunately, doctors volunteered their medical services to help us, and also others who were ill or were injured during the fighting.”
As the war continued, the Kostyuks and many other Ukrainian families hoped the situation would improve. But it was just the opposite.
“Many refugees came to our area, and some of them found shelter and food in our church,” Veronika says. Food and everyday goods were in short supply everywhere. “By November, Russian missiles were hitting electricity plants on purpose. We only had 4 to 6 hours of power a day.”
Artur had recuperated from his illness, but life was not good for the children in the area either. “Artur and Alina (age 6) always sat at home. There was no school, because there were no bomb shelters in the school buildings,” Roman says.
By winter, Roman and Veronika decided to apply for refugee status and leave Ukraine, first for Poland and then to America via Germany. Members of Slavic Full Gospel Church completed paperwork with the U.S. Customs & Immigration Service (USCIS) to sponsor the family coming to this country.
(Editor’s note: if you want to learn more about this, here’s a link https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine)
But first they had to emigrate from Ukraine, not an easy feat because Veronika was born and raised in Russia and had a Russian passport. Complicating matters was a simple mistake: Veronika’s passport number was not correct on her passport.
“I had to write a lot of letters and make a few contacts on behalf of Roman and Veronika due to her situation,” Roman Skalsky says. “Finally we decided that we’d go ahead and submit the application even with Veronika’s incorrect passport number. And, somehow, that number got changed to be correct in the paperwork process. The family was good to leave Ukraine.”
Getting out wasn’t easy either. The family caught a bus in Ivano-Frankivisk for Krakow, Poland. But they weren’t safe yet.
“When we crossed into Poland, the border guards took us away and asked many questions. Their questions indicated a distrust of us,” Veronika recalls. “I asked God for help in answering the questions well. Then they consulted for a long time, and finally they explained to me that they had no right to let me in, but they made an exception on the spot. It was a miracle.”
The Kostyuks’ stay in Poland was brief, as they journeyed by plane from Krakow to Frankfurt and then to New York City. But by then they were also penniless. “We had meals on the plane, and the children knew by then that we didn’t even have any silverware in our possession,” Veronika remembers. “The flight attendants smiled at us and told us to go ahead and take the forks, knives, and spoons with us when we left the plane.”
As he’d done about a dozen times before, Roman Skalsky drove to New York and met the Kostyuks at the JFK Airport. From there, he drove them back to Cleveland. More miracles awaited them here.
“Slavic Full Gospel Church has done so much for us,” Veronika adds. They found us a home to live in in Strongsville. Diana Skalsky prepared the home for us, and we had some furniture, food, and even silverware.
“Barbara Sternberg (from the non-profit Rise in Love) came to us and gave us help with the furniture and even toys. They also provided three months of rent for us. Then Slavic Full Gospel Church told us that they would provide us with a car also, one which was donated to them for Ukrainian refugees.”
Grateful for everything, Roman is doing odd jobs and hoping to find work as a sound engineer. “Life has become much calmer for us,” he says. “We are still afraid of the roar of airplanes and fireworks, but it all passes. Our children are very happy that they are safe here, and they like it. We do miss our friends in Ukraine, but we have been so well received. Slavic Full Gospel Church supports us and loves us.”
Roman is hoping to land regular work in sound recording, but for now he and Veronika and their two children are grateful to be safe and sound in Northeast Ohio.
For more information or to help support the work of Rise In Love, click here: https://riseinlovecenter.org/
Slavic Full Gospel Church has assisted in coming to the U.S. as war refugees. Map is from geology.com
Russians destroyed their neighborhood,
but Westlake woman turns her home into
a place of safety and love for them
Resilient. Savvy. Resourceful. Clever.
Those are some of the words which Cathy Tasse uses to describe the Malieiev family, who came to live with her in Westlake home in late February.
Bob, Sasha, Emma and Platon escaped from their home in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city (1.4 million) at the onset of the war in February 2022. It’s fortunate that they fled, as the Russian army overtook the city and it suffered greatly at the hands of the invaders for several weeks.
Russia’s military intentionally launched missiles and bombs into civilian areas of Kharkiv. These weapons of war destroyed not only the Malieiev’s home, but virtually every home and structure on their entire block. The non-governmental agency Amnesty International investigated Russia’s brutality there, and describes it as war crimes. (Here’s a link to a past story with details:
The Malieievs fled west, first to Lviv in Western Ukraine. They eventually received Temporary Protected Status from the U.S. State Department, and traveled to Stuttgart, Germany to await a sponsor in the U.S.
Bob (Volodymyr) worked as a factory manager in Kharkiv. Sasha (Oleksandra) was an accountant. Their children are Emma, 14, and Platon, 9.
Meanwhile, Cathy Tasse was caring for her husband Jeff in his final days of stage four prostate cancer. First diagnosed and treated in 2007, Jeff lived on for 15 years after that. Jeff was half Ukrainian, and he and Cathy discussed ways they might be able to assist Ukrainian refugees.
After Jeff’s passing, Cathy took action to connect with Slavic Full Gospel Church (SFGC) in Broadview Heights. She had made a decision to offer her own large home in Westlake as a place of refuge for a family fleeing the war and horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Roman and Diana Skalsky sponsored the Malieiev Family, and they received approval to enter the U.S. in February 2023. They arrived in Cleveland on February 24, precisely the one-year anniversary of the war.
Thanks to technology, Cathy had already been in touch with the Malieievs before they arrived via smartphones and apps on them such as Viber. They saw and connected with each other even before they met.
“I expected a tired, good family who needed rest and safety, traumatized and in need of essentials. Maybe they were unsure if they could trust me,” she recalls. “But they were more stable and good-natured than I expected. They were grateful for the comforts I could offer them. They had an indomitable sense of humor.
“They are very independent, and able to use GPS to drive and get to school, church, shopping, groceries, the bank, and other places,” she adds. “They have made American friends in our neighborhood, a nearby town, my social club, and have lots of Ukrainian friends at church. They are clever, resourceful, and have lots of talents and are technologically savvy.”
A recent widow, Cathy Tasse has never felt alone thanks to the Malieiev family.
“They make me laugh every day. I feel appreciated and needed. They do the cooking, yardwork, repairs, and they help me with technology too. They pray for me and encourage me when I’m sad, and Bob climbs ladders and does house maintenance tasks my husband used to do as well. My own (adult) kids live out of state, and the Malieiev family takes such loving care of my house and my cat that it’s made me free to travel and see my own kids and out-of-state friends.”
Having had them living in her home now for four months, Cathy has really gotten to know each member of the Malieiev family well.
“Bob has the heart of a lion, and he’s funny like Mr. Bean. He’s the leader of the family and the strong man they all depend upon,” Cathy describes. “He prays over everyone and everything. He’s a gifted videographer who’s skilled at adding music, special effects, and slow motion into his videos. He’s very active on social media as well. He is the dreamer, the idealist, the charmer.”
Both Bob and Sasha requested Social Security numbers at the same time. For some inexplicable reason, Sasha has hers and Bob does not.
“Sasha is the family strategist, and she’s clever and resourceful,” Cathy says. “She keeps a calm head, is very budget-conscious, and she gets the most out of a tight food allowance. Her many talents include sewing, gourmet cooking, singing, and strategy games. She can pull together a bold fashion statement with resale, donated, and sale-priced finds too. She’s already found a part-time job in her field of accounting too.
“Emma is quiet but artistic and interesting. She is very cool and confident. I am intrigued to see her fashion statements,” Cathy says. “I’m impressed by her fast understanding of English and her ability to manage regular schoolwork. She loves to babysit, and appreciates the chance to earn money.
“Platon is charming, sweet and energetic, a funny little guy who is fun to be with” Cathy adds. “He is brave and reckless and athletic. He has a great smile and optimistic personality. He loves all animals and prefers vegetarian food.”
Cathy notes that everyone in the family has a strong Christian faith, and that both Emma and Platon are unusually independent for their ages.
Sasha just obtained her Ohio driver’s license as well. “The got a car recently, and that decision took months of shopping and compromises,” Cathy adds. Their English language skills are improving, but it’s taking longer then they thought it would. ‘We are like children’ Bob said to me once, and he laughed. But that’s a normal phase of starting any new language.”
If you can help with the Malieiev family, here is a link to their GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ghp2pv-ukrainian-family-in-need
Channel 3 News’ (WKYC) Lindsay Buckingham produced a “Turning Point” story about the Malieiev family and Cathy Tasse. Here’s a link to it: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/community/turning-point/westlake-woman-takes-in-ukrainian-family/95-77a13480-1a31-4f4d-af04-ce8bcc8832de
Here are links to past eyeoncleveland.com stories about Ukrainian refugees now safe in the U.S.
PART THREE — Slavic Full Gospel Church now has over 500 people worshipping at its church every Sunday morning, more than twice as many as when the war began in February 2022. It has 150 children, K-8 grades, in Sunday School. It had about 80 participants in its first ESL class in Spring 2023. More to come.
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