Ukrainian Detroit man fears for family overseas amid Russian threat

FOX 2 - Borys Potapenko showed photos of his then-very young Ukrainian mother, and the effects of the devastation and war crimes leveled by Nazi Germany leading up to World War II.  

"This is my mom as the pudgy 5-year-old," he said, holding two photos, the second showing her gaunt, her head shaved. "This is three years later.

"They killed anybody who was practicing their Ukrainian identity."

The pain of the past is bubbling to the surface now for Potapenko, as lawmakers approve a nationwide state of emergency amid fears of a full-scale Russian invasion.

Vladimir Putin approved the deployment of Russian troops to eastern Ukraine. Borys said his brother and family are bracing for the worst.

"He said, 'Borys. No matter what, we’re staying. We’re Ukrainians, we’re going to defend our country," Potapenko said. "He and his son and his son's family, are in Kyiv, they're Kyivites and they’re preparing to defend the city."

His nephew is a part of the Territorial Defense Forces, his family hunkering down with provisions for a month.

Borys Potapenko's family overseas in Ukraine.

"It’s dumbfounding how calm they are and how determined they are," he said. "I attribute that to their experience not just these last eight years, but their experience their whole life because they also lived during the Soviet Union.

"The bomb shelters are stocked, the people have their instructions, and they are waiting for the inevitable."

The West has responded with sanctions, but Borys and others in the Ukrainian community are hoping for stronger action.  

"There’s been a war for eight years in Ukraine," he said. "And the West was comfortable with that,  s long as it didn’t go any farther. In the meantime,  over 14,000 Ukrainians have died. Nearly two million internal refugees had to be relocated to other parts of Ukraine, and what did these eight years of fighting do? They brought us to this point."