LAKE PLACID — At the USA Luge office on Friday, Jan. 10, there was a variety box of donuts on the table. Yuliia Tyshevych picked them up that morning as a way to observe a Ukrainian tradition of having a feast on the one-year anniversary of a loved one’s death.
Dmitry Feld was all about sweets, she said, so donuts seemed appropriate.
Tyshevych first met Feld a few years after she moved to the area, about nine years ago. Feld was born in Russia, but moved to Ukraine when he was young, later becoming a U.S. resident in 2001.
“Great smile,” Tyshevych said, describing her first impressions of Feld. “Welcoming. Always a big hug.”
At first, she was drawn to Feld as a fellow Ukrainian in a place with few people who knew her language and culture. When Russia invaded in 2022, however, they became very close. Feld, already a force to be reckoned with in the community, spearheaded local fundraising efforts for aid to Ukraine, including the donation of equipment to the frontlines, hospitals and schools. Tyshevych had fundraising efforts of her own, but joined forces with Feld and became a spokesperson for him, doing interviews and appearing on camera when the media descended.
Last year, on Jan. 10, Feld’s death left a gaping hole in the community, and in Tyshevych’s life. He was the one who introduced her to the Ukrainian national luge team and got her hooked on the sport. He once mentioned, offhand, that she would take his job one day. When his job opened up at USA Luge, however, it took months for her to seriously consider it.
“I thought about applying (for the job), but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Because, for me, it would be another sign that he’s gone,” she said. “For the longest time, I did not want to admit that.”
Feld’s death also left a hole in the local fundraising efforts for Ukraine. Tyshevych still collects funds for various causes in her home country, but the work has gotten harder. She has a few friends who give regularly to support her, but overall, support from the community has ebbed.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘Is that still going on in Ukraine?’” Tyshevych said. “Just because people don’t talk about it on the news as much anymore doesn’t mean it’s not going on or it’s not as bad. It might even be worse now than it was before.”
As the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches on Feb. 24, and as those who knew Feld mourn the loss of his presence and advocacy, local Ukrainians and their supporters are wrestling with a feeling of being forgotten by the world. To Tyshevych, everything Feld did seemed easy.
He “seamlessly, and without effort” helped her find her love for luge and he “seamlessly, and without effort” organized hugely successful fundraisers for Ukraine. Feld single-handedly raised more than $100,000 for Ukraine, USA Luge CEO Jim Leahy told the Enterprise last year.
“He was very good at asking people for money, without asking people for money,” Tyshevych said. “He would make you feel like it was your idea.”
Fighting forgetfulness
From left, Melissa Kukurudza, Justyna Babcock and their neighbor Stephanie Petitch hold signs, candles and sunflowers before setting out on a cold Walk for Ukraine along Lake Flower on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)
On Thursday, a small group of Saranac Lake residents gathered in Riverside Park. They pulled Ukrainian and American flags out of their trunks, along with large, fake sunflowers, candles and a cross. Melissa Kukurudza and her neighbor, Justyna Babcock, have been hosting these “Walk for Ukraine” events every week since May.
“We do this so no one forgets it,” Babcock said.
In the warmer months, they have had up to 12 or 15 people come to their walks. Now that it’s cold and dark, there’s a smaller number. Often, it’s just the two of them.
Babcock is worried about what Ukraine’s future will look like, especially with the change in presidential administration in the U.S. Kukurudza, whose grandparents were from Ukraine, has been focusing her efforts on lobbying North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik to support aid to Ukraine. The day Russia invaded Ukraine, Stefanik tweeted a statement strongly condemning both Biden and Putin, calling Putin a “war criminal and deranged thug” and saying the U.S. must take “swift and devastating action.”
However, Stefanik was one of 112 Republicans who voted against a $60.8 billion aid package for Ukraine in April. As her reason, she said she would not support tax-payer money going towards “non-lethal” aid.
Kukurudza has been to Washington D.C. to attempt to meet with Stefanik. She also attended the Ukraine Action Summit in D.C. in September, where she was a state delegate leader. She said it was an amazing experience, where fellow Ukraine supporters felt like a “family.”
Locally, Kukurudza has struggled to engage people in conversations about Ukraine.
“The feeling is, they don’t care,” Kukurudza said.
Taking aid into their own hands
Tyshevych’s biggest accomplishment this year was helping to provide a pickup truck for a friend of her cousin — someone she calls “brother” because they were always so close. Her cousin had been serving in the military from 2014 up until last year. His friend, however, was still fighting. He was stationed in Kherson at the time, along a river that functioned as the “front” of the war, for a time. They needed the truck to evacuate people and to transport supplies.
“Pickup trucks is a big thing,” Tyshevych said. “They call it ‘waste material’ on the front line, because they lose cars so fast.”
The $3,000 for the truck came from Tyshevych’s own funds.
“Other people don’t really care anymore, so that’s why I stopped just posting it,” she said.
Tyshevych said her fundraising efforts are at their lowest point, even though the situation in Ukraine is as dire as it was before, or perhaps more so. Over the last year, Russia has been slowly advancing on the battlefield while also launching repeated attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
She has a few friends who have faithfully donated to her causes on social media. She has a few organizations that she’s worked with, but recently she has mainly been donating to people she knows. That way, she know exactly where the money is going.
Much of Tyshevych’s family is still in Ukraine, although her mother recently moved to the states. Her dad, who used to be a welder who crafted ornate gates and fences out of iron, had to move out of Odesa to the countryside where he grew up.
“Nobody needs fancy gate when your house could be destroyed tomorrow,” Tyshevych said.
Babcock is one of several local residents who have been raising funds of her own. Last April, she took a trip to Poland with around $1,000 she raised by running 27 marathons between October 2023 and April 2024. She used the money to help a group of Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.
This April, Babcock is hoping to take another trip — her mother lives in Poland, so she visits every year, and this will be her fourth trip during the war. She is still deciding how she wants to help this time, but she hopes to take a 10-hour train from Warsaw to Kyiv to help with aid efforts.
When Babcock took her first trip to Poland soon after Russia’s invasion, she didn’t even have to ask for money. People heard she was going and insisted on giving. This year, she’s wondering if it’s worth trying to fundraise at all.
There are a few larger organizations that Tyshevych has worked with in helping raise funds and aid for Ukraine. One is Povernys Zhyvym (which literally means “come back alive”), an organization that sends aid to the Ukrainian military. Kukurudza recommends those who might be interested in donating consider Razom for Ukraine (“razom” means “together”).
Around the holidays, Tyshevych and her colleagues at USA Luge worked through an nonprofit called Ukrainians Abroad to collect toys and warm clothes for children at an orphanage in Lviv. Tyshevych said when the war started, there were 30 kids at the orphanage, and in December there were 120 kids.
Tyshevych knows that some people don’t feel comfortable supporting the military directly, but wants people to realize there are other ways to get involved. To learn more about Ukrainians Abroad, visit uaabroad.org, or to learn about Razom, visit tinyurl.com/yc8kfmv9.
On Thursday, a small group of Walk for Ukraine participants trudged down Lake Flower Avenue. As snow blew and the cold bit their fingers, they took turns holding the Ukrainian flag so that they could warm their hands. Towards the end of the walk, they got their first honk from a passing car and cheered.
“(Ukrainians) don’t have a choice. There’s blackouts in Ukraine every day. They have no light, no hot water, no gas, nothing to cook on, no heat,” Babcock said. “So I thought we can endure 15 minutes, or even half an hour, if they do that every day.”