Life was on track for Ievgen Potykun and Hanna Boiarska. The couple had just bought an apartment in their beloved Kyiv. Their third child had arrived. Their careers were solid. He was selling high-end area rugs. She was managing a huge furniture mall.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine.
“It was panic for the first few hours,” Boiarska said.
Potykun had suspected the Russians would cross the border, but his wife was in disbelief.
“It’s 2022. We’re in the middle of Europe. We are a huge country. Maybe they’ll play a little bit with words and that’s it.”
But their city became a warzone. Boiarska compares the sound to a fireworks show.
“We took our kids and left Kyiv and moved to my mom’s home [elsewhere in Ukraine].”
It was safer there. Other family and friends moved in, too. There were as many as 15 people in the house at one point.
Potykun’s parents, meanwhile, were much closer to the front line.
“They have had Russian missiles every single day – from the beginning of the war – and it keeps going,” he said.
His father is a chaplain in the Ukrainian military. Her youngest brother, a soldier, has been in the hospital for months after stepping on a land mine.
The couple never imagined they would leave Ukraine. But a family friend raised the specter of relocating via Uniting for Ukraine, a Biden Administration program that opens up the possibility of a two-year stay in the United States.
Boiarska came first with the children. Their American sponsor lives in Washington, D.C., but has no room for them.
“And that’s when she texted me, ‘Are you OK to go to Colorado?’ And I’m like, ‘I have no idea. We learn all the states in school, but I have no idea the difference,” Boiarska recalled.
They arrived with backpacks and a temporary place to stay in Longmont.
Boiarska needed essentials – like spoons and a kettle – and turned to the Nextdoor app for help. Her request proved pivotal. The Ankenys answered.
“My wife Laura is part Ukrainian,” Chuck Ankeny explained. “And when the war broke out, she was looking for ways to help in whatever way she could. My wife met her at Target and took her shopping and they were super grateful.”
Six months later, Potykun was able to leave Ukraine and follow his wife and kids to Colorado. The new arrivals and the Ankenys became fast friends … at just the right time for all of them.
The Ankenys own a bike shop in Boulder. Freedom Folding Bikes specializes in electric models and ones that fit into a suitcase. But they were retiring to Arizona and weren’t quite sure what to do with the business or the home they owned.
So they invited their new Ukrainian friends to move in. And pretty soon, the idea emerged of taking over the business.
“It started out as a small gesture that has turned into a very large one,” said Ankeny. “It’s really because of the potential I saw in these two.”
So gradually, the Ankenys are selling the store to Potykun and Boiarska, who have soaked up the bike business – and American English – like sponges.
“The first time I went away– after bringing Hanna into the bike shop – she took it upon herself to reorganize everything. And I came back and it’s like, ‘Wow this is amazing!’,” Ankeny remembered.
As quickly as the adults have settled in, the kids are adjusting even faster, according to Boiarska. The eldest has joined an elite youth soccer team. The youngest just started pre-kindergarten.
“And he’s so proud of himself because he’s, like, ‘I’m a big boy now!” Boiarska said – beaming.
Still, uncertainty abounds. Even as they run a business, raise three children, and dream of one day owning a home in Colorado, the future of their temporary humanitarian parole is unclear.
“We’re somewhere in the air, and we cannot build long-term plans because it’s not a way to be legal here for a long time,” Potykun said.
Nor do they have any idea how long the war will last.
“Two and a half years ago, we left everything and started from nothing– with one backpack, kids, and documents. We started our life from zero. And if we should return to Ukraine, it will be the same situation again,” said Boiarska.
