Ukrainian-American sisters reflect on the war
As the war in Ukraine rages on, the events of the last year have weighed heavily on Marta and Vera Penkalskyj.
“It’s the first thought in my mornings, and the last thought before I go to sleep,” Marta said during an interview Thursday at the Manor College observance of one year since the start of the war.
Born and raised in Pennsylvania, the sisters grew up with strong ties to the Eastern European country. Their grandparents fled Ukraine to escape Joseph Stalin’s regime during World War II. Ukrainian was their first language, and their family often participated in concerts and other cultural events.
“We were submerged into the Ukrainian community in America,” Marta said.
They began their educational careers going to Ukrainian schools, including St. Basil Academy in Jenkintown, before heading nearby to Manor College. Vera graduated in 2015 with a degree in psychology, and Marta in 2018 with a liberal arts degree.
Founded in 1947 by the Ukrainian Sisters of Saint Basil the Great, Manor College has maintained its strong ties to Ukraine, highlighting traditions in its Ukrainian Heritage Studies Center and Museum inside Josephat Hall on the Fox Chase Road campus.
Both have fond memories of Ukraine. Vera, 27, said she’s visited the country three times, and added that she loved taking part in the Ukrainian holiday traditions she grew up with here in the states.
Marta, 24, had been residing in Lviv, in western Ukraine, for nearly four years. There she built a life with her relatives, friends and boyfriend. She left the country days before Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
“It was odd because I literally thought I was reliving my grandparents’ fate,” she said, adding that “leaving was the hardest choice I’ve had to make in my entire life.”
Marta met her boyfriend while in college, and the war has now separated them by more than 5,000 miles.
“This is not something that life prepares you for,” she said.
Thinking of her friends and relatives still on Ukrainian soil, despite difficulty accessing a clear Wi-Fi signal, Marta said she’s been able to keep in contact with them.
“They’re right now struggling with that because the laws are changing to meet the needs of the country, and people can’t
keep up — so again it’s a repeat of a year ago, that psychological anxiety, and you sit there and you wait,” Marta said.
Some of Marta’s friends volunteered to serve on the front lines, while others had been drafted.
“Even in western Ukraine, they’re stopping buses (and) pulling out boys and a lot of … Ukrainians, they do want to fight but some of them aren’t ready, mentally prepared,” she said.
Marta misses being in
Ukraine “more than anything” and hopes to be able to return someday.
Now living in Lehighton, Carbon County, the sisters work in marketing and counseling, respectively. Vera, a family-based counselor, will soon begin assisting Ukrainians who’ve fled the war-torn country to seek refuge here in Pennsylvania.
“Well that’s what’s going to be the emotional part about it that it’s going to be very hard and the fact that I’m Ukrainian can
help with the empathy,” Vera said. “But hearing what they went through is going to be hard.”
The crisis in Ukraine is never far from the sisters’ minds, and it’s been difficult for them to watch the events unfold from afar.
“We see a lot of the weapons coming in right now from the West that could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and only now we hear more rhetoric about sending over fighter jets or longrange missiles,” Marta said. “It’s just frustrating to hear that it’s such a slow process.”
“I understand it from an American’s perspective, but that Ukrainian side of me is just ‘let’s get an end to this war,’ and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to end anytime soon,” she continued. “I don’t even think we’ve reached the halfway point. That’s just my perspective.”
The two participated in a bread-making ceremony and press conference on Thursday at Manor College in observance of the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
Noting that conflicts have been taking place involving Russia and Ukraine for nearly a decade, Marta stressed how “that means our resources have been depleted for nine years. Key players right now are dying out more and more rapidly.”
She praised western allies and called for further support.
“I can confidently say that Ukraine knows that it’s not alone and together and only together we can win this war which will finally make way for peace,” Marta said
Her sister agreed. “Being Ukrainian American, I ask that you continue to support us because a Ukrainian victory is not only a victory for Ukraine, but a victory for the free world,” Vera said.