Last week, two Ukrainian refugees arrived in Juneau — the third family to be sponsored by a group of Juneau residents who have raised money and opened their homes to refugees hoping to resettle in town.
Three days later, Daryna Berdnyk and Vitalii Kyryliuk sat in a house downtown, the windows behind them overlooking Mount Juneau. Their small dog, Rocky, lay curled in Berdnyk’s lap.
The couple said they felt excited and hopeful.
“Beautiful view and beautiful nature, and amazing people help my family,” Kyryliuk said. He said he hopes one day to start a business here.
The couple met in their hometown of Dnipro, before the war started. Kyryliuk worked in finance and trading. Berdnyk plays piano and had just finished school when Russia invaded.
They fled to Turkey, where they got married. Berdnyk found a job in food service. Kyryliuk tried to continue his work remotely, but he said the state of the Ukrainian economy made it hopeless.
After a year living in a refugee center, the couple flew to Juneau. But they still have parents in the country who can’t leave for various reasons, like taking care of elderly relatives and relatives who are fighting in the war.
Galyna Klub helped translate for Berdnyk and Kyryliuk during their interview. She fled the war in Ukraine, too — she came to Juneau with her daughter last year.
Klub still has family in Ukraine, too, and she said the uncertainty is incredibly hard on people who are trying to live their lives as the war grinds on.
“Mentally, it’s like, super difficult,” she said. “You cannot even plan for your future. You don’t know if you’re going to wake the next day.”
Joyanne Bloom is hosting Berdnyk and Kyryliuk for a few weeks. She’s a part of a sponsor circle — a group of residents who came together to help refugees resettle in Juneau. They first tried to sponsor Afghan refugees in 2020, but it didn’t work out — Juneau doesn’t have a mosque.
The sponsor circle used what they learned from that experience to welcome three Ukrainian families to town after Russia invaded.
“There has to be a name attached to each individual that comes in,” Bloom said. “I’m helping Galyna now to get her mother over here, and her brother and his two children. It’s taking us a long time, but we’re filling out the forms to sponsor each one.”
As of April, more than 500 Ukrainians had resettled in Alaska. Kyryliuk’s brother is still waiting for a sponsor.
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