These days, 19-year-old Ukrainian exchange student Anastasiia Lehova seeks peace of mind wherever she can find it.
In between her studies at UW-Green Bay, Lehova has taken to playing the piano as a way of clearing her mind about the war going on back in her homeland.
“My [home] university destroyed, hospital, theaters,” Lehova told NBC26.com. “Until today I lose communication with my whole family, my friends, and so on because city now is in blackout. And it’s super difficult because they [don’t have] any water, food, service, heating and all of this stuff.”
Making matters even worse, Lehova said she hasn’t spoken with her family in over a month, and every time she reaches out to them she doesn’t get a response.
“Nothing. It’s silent,” she said. “I wrote a lot of messages in apps like by ordinary message and so on, silence everywhere. Like friends, family, no one. I haven’t communicated with my mother, I just want to speak with my mother. I just want to speak with her.”
Lehova describes her mom as a “super unpredictable person.”
“Maybe she walked to the destroyed buildings to see what happened,” she told NBC26. “I hope she’s hiding in the basement of a building. I don’t really know. [Not knowing] is scary.”
In the middle of it all, Lehova noted that her student visa is set to expire in May, though she has been working to extend it given all the turmoil still going on in her home country.
