Bloomfield Resident Fears For Her Family In Ukraine

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — When Satenik Margaryan wakes up in the mornings, she checks the news for updates. When she goes to sleep at night, she tries to stay up late and do the same. And for the Bloomfield resident, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is hitting all too close to home, she says.

Margaryan, 45, is one of many New Jersey residents with relatives living in Ukraine … and households in turmoil because of it.

For Margaryan, an immigrant from Armenia who has been living in Bloomfield for almost 11 years, said her family has relatives in Kharkiv, the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine. They include her maternal uncle and his wife, as well as her two cousins, their spouses and their children – three in total. She also has third cousins in Kharkiv, although it’s “kind of hard to figure out the English designations for my extended family,” she told Patch.

Some of them have a true way with words, she added.

“My uncle is a newspaper editor in Kharkiv, and my aunt is an English language teacher in school,” Margaryan said.

When asked what thoughts – and emotions – she’s having, here’s what Margaryan said:

“My mom lives with us, so with her, we are constantly in a state of turmoil. We check the news (DW and Euronews on TV, Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram) constantly. We are worried and feel helpless … our relatives have absolutely nowhere to go, the food is running out, and the Russians are bombing constantly. I go to sleep late to make sure Ukraine and my relatives made it through the night. I wake up early in the morning and check right away for the news from Ukraine. I listened to a talk today with three renowned historians: Timothy Snyder, Ann Applebaum, and Yuval Noah Harari, and what they said really struck me: The past does not determine the present and future. Our resistance matters, our individual choices matter. What Ukrainians have done so far has changed the whole geopolitical situation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has seen global condemnation after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The military conflict has already cost at least 136 civilian lives, with the true figure feared to be much higher, the United Nations reported Tuesday.

The invasion of Ukraine followed a series of failed diplomatic efforts, NPR reported. It marks the largest military attack of one state against another on the European continent since the Second World War, Fox News stated.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

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