CHICAGO — Every month since the Russian invasion of her homeland, Liliia Popovych has volunteered to work extra shifts at her hospital as a nurse, sending the money to soldiers and Ukrainians affected by war.
Her grandparents, a world away in Ukraine, wake each day to sirens warning of incoming rockets. They lay flowers on the road as car caravans pass by carrying the bodies of fallen soldiers.
So on Wednesday, as Ukrainians gathered in downtown Chicago to commemorate Ukrainian independence with a flag raising, Popovych went to work.
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"We're just fighting on our front line here," said Popovych, 30. "I am doing what I can do in diaspora."
Half a year since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, USA TODAY reporters reconnected with Ukrainians across the globe who first shared their experiences during the early stages of the war.
While some are struggling under Russian occupation or living amid fierce combat and shelling, others in the U.S. and Europe are adapting to new countries and a new normal. Several said they worry public attention to the war and its human toll is waning.
Here are their stories.
- The entire world is losing. Must Ukraine concede the Donbas?
- For refugees in the US, long-term survival is a big concern
- War crimes: An inside view of Ukraine's push for justice
Ukrainian fighter waits for more ammunition
In southern Ukraine this week, Volodymyr Omelyan attended a memorial ceremony to say goodbye to three close friends killed in a Russian missile strike on the city of Mykolaiv.
"I was with them from the very beginning — from the first day of the war," Omelyan, 43, told USA TODAY on the phone. "It's a shock. But still there is no feeling that we should leave the battlefield."
Omelyan, Ukraine’s former infrastructure minister, joined the nation's volunteer Territorial Defense Forces in the wake of the invasion. In recent months, his unit has been based between the cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson. He lives in a field encampment fortified with machine guns and serves 48-hour rotations.
"We become older — not because of the age but because of challenges we face, the losses of our friends," Omelyan said. "You don't even have time to grieve them and to say sorry. You fight endlessly."
Almost 9,000 Ukrainian "heroes" have died in the war, said Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukraine military, on Monday.
OPINION: She is 8 years old. I ask her what the war in Ukraine is like. 'Terrible,' she says.
Omelyan said many of his friends have not seen their families since the beginning of the war. His wife has made two briefs visits to Ukraine, but he wants his family to stay abroad for now, especially fighting rages around a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.