Ukrainian children thrive in Minnesota after losses in the Russian invasion 2 years ago

It’s recess at Rice Lake Elementary in Maple Grove and Artem Fedorenko, 10, heads to grab his coat from his locker.

“Zip?” he asks a classmate.

The fellow fourth grade student helps Artem put his arm through the sleeve and zips his coat up. Together, they head outside, where Artem excels in a game of soccer, confidently declaring himself team captain despite the challenges he has faced in the past two years since Russia invaded his home country of Ukraine.

Artem is missing his left arm, an injury from a bomb. He came to Minnesota with his mother to receive a prosthetic in late 2022.

Special friendships have helped ease Artem’s transition to his new life, particularly a reunion with his best friend Nika Kravchenko, 9, a third grader who also attends Rice Lake Elementary.

A map in the English Learner room, an arrow with Artem’s name on it points to Ukraine, along with Nika and many others. Rice Lake, in Osseo District 279, has now welcomed over two dozen Ukrainian students.

“What a unique opportunity and, unfortunately, a terrible time in their lives, but for me, it’s really important for everyone to feel good and safe at school,” said Diane Bagley, Rice Lake’s principal.

Artem likes to tell jokes through Google Translate. He loves humor and often shares how he lost his arm, both signs of his resilience, Bagley said.

Artem’s loss

On Feb. 26, 2022, Artem visited his father at a cabin outside Kyiv. Artem’s family hoped he would be safer outside the city, but Russians invaded the village. His father died shielding Artem. Artem’s half-brother died, too.

“Why did it happen to my son? My heart hurts. I will always feel this pain for him,” said Oksana Shpakovych, Artem’s mother. “I hope he will forget all this stuff and like a bad dream.”

As Inna Karpenko interprets in English, Shpakovych recounts the harrowing journey to find Artem after the bombing, eventually seeking refuge in Western Ukraine and then Spain in hopes of securing a prosthetic for her son.

Shpakovych reunited with Karpenko, her longtime friend, and Karpenko’s daughter, Nika, in Minnesota. The families moved together from Ukraine to Spain and finally to Maple Grove.

After living with sponsor families in the Twin Cities, Shpakovych and Karpenko now share a home and vowed to live together as a family for one year.

Nika, a budding artist, covers her bedroom wall with drawings she created in school. Artem shows where he keeps his prosthetic arm in a basement drawer. 

There’s a backyard big enough to play tag, a secret room under the stairs, and a fish tank. Artem and Nika affectionately call each other brother and sister, often bursting into giggles.

“It’s like a big chance for us to begin a new life from the new page,” said Karpenko. “Artem is a good example for all of us. How he can enjoy life and do everything he wants. Even without his arm, he can dive, he can play tennis, he can play soccer, he can play PlayStation with one arm.”

Hope for amputees

While living in Spain, Shpakovych saw a Facebook post from the Protez Foundation in Oakdale and reached out to the founder and medical director, Yakov Gradinar.

Gradinar made Artem’s prosthetic arm, the first child he treated at the Protez Foundation, which to date has provided free prosthetics to 150 Ukrainians at their headquarters in Minnesota and at a clinic in Kyiv.

“Artem is quite a character, he’s a very, very active person,” Gradinar said. “Why do kids have to suffer in the 21st century and lose their limbs? It’s like, why?”

Gradinar holds a blowtorch, shaping a prosthetic while greeting a new group of amputees who just arrived from Ukraine. The group of mostly soldiers starts the day in physical therapy, exercising in unison.

One man is missing both arms, another is missing both legs and yet another man has only his right arm remaining. Still, there’s laughter. Some will receive their prosthetic limbs and return to the war. Gradinar estimates that 1,500 people are on the Protez Foundation’s waiting list.

Gradinar offered to sponsor Artem so he and his mother could move to Minnesota for medical support.  Both Shpakovych and Karpenko found sponsor families through the federal Uniting for Ukraine program and the Minnesota-based nonprofit Alight.

Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, Alight has recruited more than 500 Minnesota families to welcome Ukrainians into their homes.

“We are still seeing people arriving, we’re still seeing people waiting for travel authorization,” said Steph Koehne, private sponsorship lead at Alight. “I’ve been the most moved by the resilience of the kids, but having a child have their life disrupted is trauma, and then having them have to rebuild on their own.”

Passage of time

As the day ends in fourth grade, Artem isn’t focused on what is lost. His prosthetic arm is shoved under his desk as he works on telling time. His teacher asks how many minutes are in an hour.

He adjusts the hands on a sample clock from 2:30 to 3:30, and his eyes light up with the correct answer.

He’s learning to tell time about the way it moves forward and doesn’t turn back.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on MPR and is republished here with permission.