TEN - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Ukrainian refugee looks back a year
-Continued from PAGE ONE
Iryna Pustyakova is from Mykolaiv in the southern Ukraine. It’s shown toward the bottom
of this map, located near the Black Sea just northeast of Odesa. Pustyakova and her friend
fled southwest into Romania, and then circled through Hungary and Slovakia before ending
in Poland. Pustyakova would fly to Mexico from there. -Contributed
stay with them.
“I grabbed my cats and
my devices and my papers,
and I ran to her,” Pustyako-
va said. “My only thought
was to get out.”
The mayor of Mykolaiv
told citizens to stay put and
not move around at all.
Mykolaiv, an important
shipbuilding city located on
the Black Sea, was a prime
target for the Russians.
Not only that, but it was
also seen as a strategically
important stepping-stone
for the Russian invasion
of Odesa. Odesa is a ma-
jor Ukrainian seaport and
transport hub, also located
on the Black Sea.
“There was alarm that
they were really going to
invade,” Pustyakova says.
There was no invasion
that day, but Pustyakova
and her friends endured a
night of bombs and shell-
ing along with the rest of
the city.
“It was scary. Very
scary.”
“The next day, when
it was quiet in the morn-
ing, we were trying to get
back to my apartment. We
couldn’t, because transpor-
tation had stopped,” she
says. They finally found
a taxi after two hours. At
her apartment, she grabbed
a backpack with necessi-
ties like a change of cloth-
ing—not much, because she
couldn’t imagine not being
able to return home soon.
“That was the last day I
was ever back in my apart-
ment,” she says.
That was Feb. 25. Pus-
tyakova stayed with her
friend for about a week,
enduring conditions few
people in America have
ever known.
“You have two or three
hours where there was si-
lence,” she says. That was
when people rushed out to
stock up on food and other
supplies. By the first day,
the stores were already half
empty.
“Everybody ran to
pharmacies and tried to
buy as many medicines
as they could,” she says.
“While I was in Ukraine,
there was a store, and the
Russians targeted it. They
didn’t destroy it entirely,
but they did some damage
to it. I remember.”
She says they spent
the first three days shaking
with fear.
“At the beginning we
were hiding in Marina’s
apartment between two
walls,” says Pustyakova.
They then moved into the
building’s central hall to
have more walls between
them and incoming bombs.
She says they didn’t hide in
the basement because, “If
the building crashed, it’s a
death sentence.”
They heard missiles
and helicopters day and
night.
“We didn’t know if it’s
Ukrainian, if it’s Russian.
Will it bomb? Will it not?
We constantly were dis-
cussing what to do,” she
says. After a couple of days,
she says they started to joke
to relieve the stress.
“We were basically
sitting and hiding already
in the apartment, and we
started joking. Just a little
bit. Just to go through this
night,” Pustyakova says.
She recalls one time
when a friend outside of
the Ukraine called to check
on her.
“I couldn’t focus on
anything. She’s trying to
say something, and it didn’t
help.
“I can’t describe this
level of fear. It freezes you.
You can’t function,” she
adds. “I would never, ever
wish anybody to be in that
situation.”
During the afternoon of
Feb. 26, 12 Russian tanks
managed to break through
in Kakhovka on the Dnieper
and began heading towards
Mykolaiv. By that night,
they were in the city.
“At the beginning, they
really tried not to touch
civilians,” Pustyakova
says. Later, when they saw
that they were losing, they
started targeting civilian
structures. Even now, with
Russian forces pushed back
and the city no longer under
direct threat, life is far from
normal.
Russia continues to
pound infrastructure. Hos-
pitals, schools and transpor-
tation continue to be targets,
and utilities like electricity,
water and internet are spo-
radic at best.
“They (Russia) are try-
ing to turn the population
against the war. They’re
trying to turn the people
against the government,”
says Pustyakova. “It hurts.
It hurts.”
Meanwhile, Stephen
Wrecsics of Irrigon was
watching the situation help-
lessly from the U.S. and
was urging Pustyakova to
get out of the Ukraine. The
two had met and formed a
friendship online about six
months before. Wrecsics
had actually been planning
to visit before the invasion.
As former military, he had
also been watching the situ-
ation with growing concern
even before Feb. 24.
“Things were just align-
ing in my head. Things felt
off,” says Wrecsics. He says
he’s no expert on military
maneuvers, but an invasion
seemed like the next logical
step for Russia. “They were
putting too many pieces in
place for it to be a military
exercise.”
“Stephen told me it
would happen, but I didn’t
believe it would happen,”
Pustyakova admits. “Ukrai-
nians never thought it would
happen. They thought it was
just hysteria from the west.
“We always had good
relations. We always looked
to them like friends. We
speak the same language.”
With the invasion un-
derway, Wrecsics says he
wanted to get Pustykova out
of the country, but he also
realized he might be putting
himself in danger if he tried
to get to the Ukraine.
“They had closed the
borders to military-aged
men,” he said. “Would they
let me leave?”
Through messaging,
Pustyakova realized how
conflicted he was, and says
she was afraid he would try
to get to the Ukraine and
get her.
“I don’t want anything
to happen to him,” she says.
“That’s when I started mes-
saging everyone I know.”
By this point, bus sta-
tions had stopped selling
tickets because people were
too scared to travel. Trains
couldn’t get through be-
cause the Russians had
bombed the railways. She
started looking at web fo-
rums, where people with
transportation offered to
help get others out of the
country—for a price.
“I was calling. A lot of
them just didn’t respond.
At the same time, I was
messaging to all my friends
and relatives if they were
going to stay or go, if they
had cars.”
A friend, Olga, mes-
saged that she had decided
to go. It was 2 a.m. on
a morning in March, but
Pustyakova started packing.
She said she couldn’t eat,
couldn’t sleep.
“There was so much
adrenaline in my system.
I felt like I was on drugs,”
she says.
She left her cats with
Marina. Even now, she
chokes up when talking
about leaving them behind,
but says at least she didn’t
have to abandon them on
the street. This way, she has
a hope of seeing them again
someday.
Olga worked for a com-
pany out of the Netherlands,
and her colleagues outside
the country were going to
monitor the situation and
guide her on the safest way
to go.
Against the popular
trend, they told her not to go
straight to Poland. Instead,
Olga, her 12-year-old son
and Pustyakova headed
for Odesa and beyond that,
the Romanian border. The
Ukraine military didn’t
even stop them, she says,
because they saw two wom-
en and child.
“They were all, ‘Fast-
er, faster, go, go, go,’” she
says. “They were interested
in us to leave.”
The normally short trip
to Odesa took a whole day
because of the line of cars
evacuating the city.
“There was one time
when we were in line and
there was a (cruise) missile
targeted toward Odessa,”
Pustyakova recalls, “So we
all kind of freaked out.”
Despite that, the road
to Romania turned out to
be the right call. Ukrainians
who flocked to the Polish
border had to wait an av-
erage of three to four days
to cross into Poland. After
10 hours at the Romanian
border, Pustyakova and her
friends were in. They made
the ferry crossing across
the Danube the night of
March 4.
“That was the first time
I felt relief, only when we
crossed the border,” says
Pustyakova. She says they
were greeted with offers of
food and clothing. “When
we crossed, all the volun-
teers ran to the cars. That’s
the very first help that you
can get.”
Once in Romania, Olga
found a colleague who
directed her toward a hotel
where they were able to stay
for three or four days. They
were safe, but still on edge.
“In Romania, every
sound made us jump and
look for a place to hide,”
says Pustyakova. “In Roma-
nia, cars washing pavement
sounded like air alerts.”
Their goal was Poland,
because Olga’s company
had a large office there, so
Olga had a job waiting for
her. Their route remained
circuitous, though.
“We didn’t go straight
to Poland. We had to do this
circle,” Pustyakove says.
“We basically had to travel
around the Ukraine to get
to Poland.”
Their route took them
from Romania, through
Hungary and Slovania, and
finally into Poland. They
found a place to stay in a
complex that held a lot of
Ukrainian refugees. Even
then, though, Wrecsics
urged Pustyakova to seek
asylum in the U.S. To do
that, she knew she needed
to be on American soil. She
says she saw a blog post
about U.S. border guards al-
lowing Ukrainians to cross
into America from Mexico,
and she started researching
that route.
“That’s what we decid-
ed to do,” she said.
She got a plane ticket
from Poland to Mexico
City. She took a bus from
Hermosillo to a friend who
lives in Puerto Penasco.
Her friend drove her to
the border near Lukeville,
AZ. From there, she took
a shuttle to Phoenix. She
stayed there briefly before
beginning the final leg of
her journey, a flight from
Phoenix to the Pasco Air-
port in the Tri-Cities. There,
Wrecsics met her.
“She’s the one who
took all the risk,” says
Wrecsics. “I felt bad be-
cause there was no risk on
my end. The biggest risk
I took was driving to the
Tri-Cities and dealing with
Washington drivers.”
Pustyakova has been in
Morrow County for nearly
a year now. She teaches En-
glish to Russian speakers,
and she searches for a kind
of normalcy in life.
“Right now I’m fine,
but at the beginning I
wasn’t,” says Pustyakova.
“Small things are different.
I was afraid of everything.
I was afraid of small things
because I didn’t want to
look stupid.”
For instance, Wrecsics
says she wasn’t used to
being able to drink water
from the tap. Nor did she
know how to drive.
“For me, I have to drive
everywhere,” says Wrec-
sics, who works for the
Morrow County Planning
Department. “The whole
process of trying to nor-
malize and trying to get her
stuff that she can call her
own, has been a struggle.”
She also struggles with
a form of survivor’s guilt,
knowing what those who
stayed in the Ukraine have
been going through since
she left. Friends who stayed
behind have already gone
through military training
to join the fight. Already, a
divide is forming between
those who stayed and those
who left, making it hard for
Pustyakova to know if she
could ever fit back into life
in the Ukraine.
“You cannot judge. I
know what they’re going
through,” she says. “It hurts
me. I’m trying to watch less
news. It didn’t help. It made
it worse.”
All the same, she is still
Ukrainian, and she says she
feels the pain her country
is enduring. All it takes is a
news item to bring back the
nightmares.
“It’s over, it’s going to
happen right now to me,”
she says of that feeling.
“Every time something
happens there, it puts me
back in the 24 th of Febru-
ary.”
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Heppner council
-Continued from PAGE ONE to pursue upgrades to the
Heppner City Park play
area. He said he had spoken
with Kim Cutsforth about
help getting grants from
Willow Creek Valley Eco-
nomic Development Group
and possibly the Wildhorse
Foundation, and he thought
the city had some extra
funds.
“It’s not in any dire
straits right now as it is,
but it’s older, it’s fading,
parts are breaking,” he said.
When asked about esti-
mated cost to the city, he
replied, “It depends on what
Kim can get, and maybe
we can’t afford it. It’s just
a deep dive in to see if we
can.”
The council gave
Doherty permission to pro-
ceed, and Mayor Sweeney
said they would discuss
more details at the council
work session.
In his report, Kraig
Cutsforth said he had a
Zoom meeting with a se-
curity camera company
regarding replacing old-
er cameras and installing
some new ones. He also
continued to look for a
street sweeper without suc-
cess.
“Haven’t found the
right one yet, but I’ll keep
looking,” he said.
Regarding the water
system update, he said An-
derson & Perry would work
on that when they were fin-
ished with the sewer project
updates.
Chad Doherty added
that he understood that as
soon as they finished the
recycled water plan and the
biosolids management plan,
Anderson & Perry would
deep dive into the sewer
plan and get that going.
He wasn’t sure when they
would be able to return to
the water system.
Heppner resident Jus-
tin Hoeft raised concerns
about a residence on Cow-
ins Street that he said was
getting “out of control.”
“All hours of the night
there are people out there
that I don’t recognize, and
I’ve lived in Heppner 11
years,” he said.
Finally, the council
unanimously passed a res-
olution to adopt the follow-
ing list of city council goals
for 2023:
1. Focus on various grants
for the years, to include
sewer and water, downtown
enhancement and play-
ground equipment.
2. Continue to work on the
sewer project, including
land acquisition, bid plans
and a clear view of pond or
retention lagoon needs.
3. Implement plans for fu-
ture circuit court facilities
to remain in Heppner; work
closely with the board of
commissioners.
4. Start quarterly work
session meetings to tack-
le upcoming projects and
problem areas.
5. Purchase new servers for
the city.
6. Fill the inevitable city
manager vacancy, with a
possible job description
update.
7. Crack seal the city streets
and follow up with chip seal
projects.
8. Bring back regular
scheduled city committee
meetings.
9. Purchase modern street
sweeper by fall 2023.
10. Complete shop door
project for public works.
Rite. The striping consists
of about $20,000 of the
original contract.
Kraig Cutsforth asked
the council to cut the retain-
age by half.
“I think that’s a little
steep for a $20,000 hole,”
said Cutsforth, referring to
the $200,000 retainage. “It
seems like an awful lot to
hold from a small business.
Two hundred thousand is
still owed to them, regard-
less of this 20.”
High questioned
whether Premier had asked
for the money. Cutsforth
said they had not.
“But they will,” he add-
ed. He said Premier expect-
ed the job to be closed out
and was not aware the city
was asking for an extension
from ODOT, “unless they
read it in the paper.”
“So they are under the
impression that they’re fin-
ished,” said High.
“Yes, except for the
striping,” said Cutsforth.
“So, it sounds like we
need to communicate with
them,” said Sweeney.
“That’s why I’m trying
to,” said Cutsforth, adding
that he was looking for
direction from the council
regarding that conversation.
The consensus of the
council seemed to be to
keep the current retainage,
but Sweeney told Cutsforth
the council would discuss
the subject of striping fur-
ther at its Feb. 17 work
session.
Heppner Fire Chief
Steve Rhea told the council
that activity in January had
slowed from what it was in
November and December.
He reported four lift assists
for the month of January, as
well as one secure landing
zone, one structure fire in
the city, one EMS call to
assist with CPR, one body
removal assist, one tree
fire in the city and one con-
trolled burn not called in.
Rhea also reported that
he wrote two grants for
community wildfire risk
reduction with the Oregon
State Fire Marshal. One
grant for city protection is
$40,000 for an application
of a new herbicide called
Rejuvra that will take out
the annual grasses and leave
the perennials.
“Our plan is to do about
100 acres of treatment. That
would be about a 200-foot
swath around the perime-
ter of the city to take out
rye, cheat, foxtail,” said
Rhea. “There might be
some broadleaf control,
which would take out mus-
tard, tarweed, things of that
nature.”
The other grant would
be to rent a chipper to do
some fuels reduction at
Blake Ranch this spring.
Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office also reported a
slower January. The num-
ber of deputy hours was
higher than normal at 408
deputy work hours because
new deputy Brandon Royal
is riding along with deputy
Daniel Thomas. Total Hep-
pner work hours were 505.
Calls for service in January
were down a little bit. There
were 10 traffic stops, one
stop with a citation, and
four dog calls. MCSO made
one felony arrest and a total
of two arrests in January.
Public Works Direc-
tor Chad Doherty asked
the council’s permission
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