“We waited in the basement,” she said. “It’s a terrible situation, (a) terrible feeling.”
She moved further out of the city to her parents’ tulip farm, but Russian forces advanced to that area as well. Kovalenko and her son managed to escape Ukraine through the federal Humanitarian Parole program, finding assistance along the way via its Uniting for Ukraine process.
Leaving the country for the United States meant leaving Kovalenko’s parents, sister, brother and friends.
Kovalenko and her son arrived stateside the Tuesday before Thanksgiving with just two suitcases between the two of them.
They found refuge in the home of John Daley and Lorena Esparza. The Washington Twp. couple learned of the family’s plight via a Nov. 15, 2022 email sent to all Dayton-based LexisNexis Risk employees by Chris Albee, another Lexis-Nexis employee and a parish member at St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Sugarcreek Twp.
“We had this big house and two empty bedrooms that weren’t being utilized and it seemed ... incredibly selfish to not take them in, to not help, to not open up our home,” Lorena Esparza said.
Kovalenko said Esparza opening the door to take them in was an “amazing moment,” one that had her thanking God and leaving her feeling “safe and at home.”
To bridge the language barrier and communicate, the two families relied heavily on translation apps on their phones.
Kovalenko worked several jobs at the same time while learning English, and dreamed of finding a small space to open a mini studio where she could bring her fashion sketches to life, sketches she used in Ukraine to create her own line of clothing.
By summer 2023, Kovalenko and her son moved out of Daley and Esparza’s home. Several months later, with Esparza’s help, she found a storefront next to Meadowlark Restaurant in Centerville and the two friends worked together to complete the copious amount of paperwork needed to start a new business.
Kovalenko opened YUNI Creative Tailoring at 5539 Far Hills Ave. in Centerville this spring. The small shop allows her to offer her sewing skills at a fixed, low price. That includes altering and fixing high-end clothing, painting, staining and reupholstering furniture, refinishing wooden pieces and creating custom drapes.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
“I love what I do and plan to continue to grow, no matter what my future holds,” Kovalenko said via a translation app. “Whether I return to Ukraine or continue my journey in the U.S., here and now I am happy because I am not sitting still, but moving my and my son’s little universe forward, and the universe reciprocates.”
Korzh said he worked several jobs before getting hired as a mechanic replacing car engines. He said being in the United States while a war rages in his homeland is “a little bit weird” for him.
“It’s so chill here,” he said. “No air alarms and ... just a good life. I like the way it is.”
Esparza said Kovalenko and Korzh are “really great people. They’re just the kind of people that you can’t help but fall in love with. So it’d be amazing for them to stay here. I think they’re a great addition” to America.
But their future on these shores remains in limbo, Esparza said.
Although the Biden administration this summer allowed for a 2-year extension to the program that brought the family to America, the program does provide an option for permanent residency, she said. The incoming Trump administration could grant another 2-year extension or it could pull the existing extension entirely, sending the family back to Ukraine, Esparza said.
It’s a similar immigration situation to what the thousands of Haitians in Springfield face.
“There’s no way for them to make a living right now in Ukraine,” she said. “It’s war torn. Autonomy is gone, so if they go back, what are they going back to? But their status here is so tenuous and temporary, so it’s hard for them to think long term. It’s hard for them to fully let go and say, ‘Yeah, this is home,’ because we haven’t fully, legally allowed them to feel that way.”
Esparza said the up-in-the-air situation creates “a constant undercurrent of tension that never goes away.”
“Every day is one day ticking away at their temporary time here,” she said.
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