Ukraine's turmoil hits home for Hoosiers in ministry group

Indianapolis is more than 5,000 miles from Ukraine, but the political and economic turmoil in that nation feels like a family emergency to certain Hoosiers.

Some have blood ties, but all have developed heart-to-heart connections like Kenneth Ney, an Indianapolis urologist who has traveled to Ukraine at least 18 times in the past two decades.

Ney is president of Mission to Ukraine, which is focused on delivering Christian services aimed at deterring women from abortions as well as helping children with disabilities. But with the immediate crisis in Ukraine, their thoughts are will the entire country.

"It is near and dear to my heart and my thoughts are with all the people — the wonderful, hardworking, peace-loving people," Ney said. "And Ukraine's history is a country that has been trashed up one way and down another."

Some of the members of Mission to Ukraine are directly connected to the country of more than 40 million people, with Russia on much of its eastern border.

For months, tensions have built as it struggled over whether to align economically with Europe or Russia, and in recent weeks, political divides have resulted in Ukraine's president apparently abandoning the country, Russian military moving into the Crimea area and world leaders shuttling and negotiating for some resolution.

Those complex issues boil down to immediate uncertainties for Mission to Ukraine: Will its members be able to make planned trips? Will the organization be able to transfer money to pay its staff in Ukraine? Can medications and other supplies still get through?

Will the people we love be safe?

"We're all watching the tanks go in," said Nela Wainscott of Carmel, a Mission to Ukraine member whose parents are from Ukraine. "We're all in agony about what's going on."

Wainscott has distant relatives in Ukraine, and her mother, who now lives in the Atlanta area, is fretting constantly, she said.

Indianapolis businessman Steve Znachko's roots also are in Ukraine, but are a few generations removed.

After the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Znachko initially traveled to teach Christian ethics and morality as a new legal system was being developed.

He happened upon Mission to Ukraine and has come to serve as the group's pastor, visiting Ukraine several times a year.

About a week ago, he said, the staff in Ukraine implored him to come for a visit as soon as possible.

He is scheduled to leave Saturday. Znachko is not sure what he'll find this time.

Are the sons of his longtime co-workers about to be drafted into military service? That's another looming fear, and Znachko carries those personal worries with him.

"Once you have faces and names to the people who are being persecuted or struggling, it changes everything," Znachko said. "When you know their names and you watch them with their children and had dinner at their table, you come to understand they are just like us."

Because of his personal contacts, Znachko has been able to get firsthand reports via email, Facebook and other social media to supplement mainstream news coverage.

Natasha Mazur is even more immersed — she relies on satellite feeds of independent Ukrainian television coverage to stay abreast of developments.

Mazur, 36, came to Indiana three years ago to work for Helmer Scientific in Noblesville, directing the firm's corporate social responsibility efforts.

She also is connected to Mission to Ukraine and speaks Ukrainian and Russian, in addition to English and Spanish.

She went home in December to be with her mother in Kiev as unrest became more pronounced. Mazur met with friends regularly in peaceful protest in Kiev's Independence Square.

Back in Central Indiana, it's a challenge for her to find time to sleep, between work and accounting for the time difference to watch the news.

To say Mazur is torn between her new home and her birth home is an understatement.

And so, she is monitoring the developments in Ukraine not just as an educated observer of history, politics and culture, but also as a daughter.

"We have been trying to get rid of the Soviet heritage for so long," she said. "And I am watching for updates from friends."

Call Star reporter Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249. Follow her on Twitter: @dianapenner.

For more information about Mission to Ukraine, go to www.missiontoukraine.org. Also, follow posts on its Facebook page, some in Russian and Ukrainian but some in English: http://on.fb.me/1cePldV.