Ukraine crisis hits close to home for USU Volleyball star
Between classes at Utah State University on Feb. 15, Khrystyna Frank video called her family. It was 8 p.m. in Kyiv, Ukraine; nine hours ahead of Logan. After chatting for a few minutes, Frank waved them goodbye and started studying.
Frank is a Utah State senior and this fall, she became a Mountain West champion. She was an outside hitter on the Aggies volleyball team that split the regular-season crown with Colorado State. She led the squad with 3.06 kills per set.
Congratulations to Kristy Frank for being named to the All-Mountain West team!
– 260 kills
– .217 hitting percentage
– 217 digs
– 41.0 blocks#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/nmtcZNxQos— USU Volleyball (@USUVolleyball) November 24, 2021
Right now, Frank’s life is stressful. She is finishing her bachelor’s degree this semester, practicing to keep up her volleyball skills and deciding whether or not she’ll play another season of college volleyball. On top of this, Frank has started to worry about her family in Ukraine due to threats of a Russian invasion of the country.
“It is nerve-racking. Just that additional stress,” Frank said. “It’s just that factor that I can’t be close with them.”
Per reports, the United States says Russia has upwards of 150,000 troops built-up on the borders between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. According to the Associated Press, Russia is closer to an invasion, but the United States is still working towards diplomacy.
BREAKING: U.S. says President Biden has agreed in principle to meeting with Vladimir Putin, brokered by France, if Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine. https://t.co/OnGEdoj937
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 21, 2022
There’s no doubt the crisis hits close to home to Frank, as well as USU Men’s Basketball guard Max Shulga, who is also from Kyiv. Shulga declined to comment on the story.
Frank grew up with threats like this often hanging over her country. “Throughout my life and experience in Ukraine, there’s always been something happening,” she said.
When Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Frank was living in Kyiv. “There was this big riot and meetings in my city in downtown,” Frank said. “At first, it was very chaotic. It was dangerous to go outside… It kept going for so long people got used to it.”
The current threat feels different to Frank.
“I feel like this one is more serious. Also, we don’t know if it’s actually going to happen or no,” Frank said. “It’s more anticipation of what is going to happen.”
Dr. Anna Pechenkina, an associate professor of political science at Utah State, said the situation is difficult to predict.
“This is an impossible question to answer of course we shouldn’t make predictions,” Pechinka said. “I will simply say that based on the fundamentals, it would be shocking to see a full-on invasion with an occupation. It seems to me that Russia wins much more by threatening the invasion instead of invading.”
Pechenkina finds the publicity the current crisis is getting is odd.
“I’m frankly very much surprised at the attention that this crisis is getting, mainly because people in Ukraine don’t see the invasion as imminent,” Pechenkina said.
Pechenkina thinks the United States has responded to this crisis strongly because of how things went in 2014. Russia was able to annex the Crimea region of Ukraine with few repercussions.
“This is an attempt to undo the response in 2014,” Pechenkina said. “ What you see today is kind of a 180 degree opposite reaction.”
In the past weeks, Biden and the United States have executed actions to prepare for the potential invasion.
According to NPR, Biden told U.S. citizens in Ukraine to “leave now.” He also said there will not be any military rescues for U.S. citizens left in the country if an invasion occurs. Last week, the U.S. State Department closed its embassy in Kyiv and moved it to Lviv.
Since Pechenkina gave her expertise, the situation has become more serious. According to The New York Times, President Joe Biden said he believes Russia will “attack Ukraine in the coming week.” During the same press conference, Biden said he believes “they will target Ukraine’s capital Kyiv” where Frank’s family lives.
Actions like this made Frank see the difference between the reaction in Ukraine and abroad about the threatened invasion.
“It seems to me like the other countries are more invested in trying to make something happen than Ukraine itself,” Frank said.
News coverage of the event in the United States has added to Frank’s worries.
“I actually haven’t been watching much news. The only information updates I get is from my family because it really makes me even more stressed and nervous to just watch the news,” Frank said. “Hopefully everything stays fine because we don’t really have other places to go. We don’t have much extended family. If something would happen, they wouldn’t have anywhere to go.”
In general, Frank thinks none of her fellow Ukrainians want conflict.
“People really just want to live in peace and no one in Ukraine wants to have any war or something happening between Russia and Ukraine,” Frank said. “If something happens everyone is going to be affected by it.”
Despite experiencing situations like this growing up in Ukraine, it is tougher for Frank to hear about them when she is more than 5,600 miles away.
“Really worried because they’re so far away. If something happens it’s going to be very tough to come there and be with them,” Frank said. “I just hope the situation stays fine and the country will be safe so people can actually relax and enjoy their life… I want my family to be safe.”