Omaha man from Ukraine concerned for family back home

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - As tensions continue to rise on the Russia-Ukrainian border, American citizens with families in Ukraine are on edge.

Pavel Domnenko, who lives here in Omaha, is originally from western Ukraine, where his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all still living.

“Two-three days ago the sentiment there was everything was OK. They were expecting a little bit of shelling here and there, but nothing to get your hairs raised,” Pavel Domnenko said.

Domnenko is staying in close contact with his family, checking in every few days as the situation changes minute by minute. He said that even though tensions are highest on the eastern side of the nation, he’s still concerned.

“Now everyone seems to be mobilizing,” he said. “Everyone seems to be headed to the eastern front, and we still don’t know what the actual situation is.”

Domnenko said that with so many different news outlets reporting different things about the ongoing crisis, it’s difficult to know what’s happening in real-time.

“I read a lot of Ukrainian newspapers online, and a lot of it is about them being out on the front lines; but they just cherrypick what they want to showcase,” he said.

UNO political science professor Jody Neathery-Castro said that confusion is there is because there is a lot of information coming from different places. She said the Ukrainians don’t have a free press — it’s state-run — and the people there are hearing information coming directly from Russia.

“It’s actually been an active campaign on the part of Russia to manage the media coverage that the Ukrainians do get and to put their narrative out as the narrative,” Neathery-Castro said.

Domnenko said that while uncertainty still looms, the Ukrainian people are tough and have been in many similar situations in the past.

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