Columbia restaurant worker collects tips to help get his family out of Ukraine
Oleksandr Vykhrest has watched the last two weeks unfold back in his native Ukraine with mounting dread.
His thoughts have been focused on his sister Svetlana Voronova and niece Sasha, who live in a small town outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Sasha, 17, uses a wheelchair, and her full-time caregiver Voronova needed special transportation to get her daughter out of the way of the Russian invasion.
“They’re safe so far, but there have been air strikes and it’s getting worse, the war is approaching them,” Vykhrest said in a phone interview. “They were in a bunker for a couple days because of air sirens.”
He’s collecting funds to help them out of the country at Julia’s German Stammtisch, the northeast Columbia restaurant where Vykhrest works as a chef. His co-workers and customers have been supportive, but Vykhrest still estimates he needs to raise several thousand dollars to help his sister’s journey and ultimately resettle his family in the United States.
As of Friday, Voronova had managed to get Sasha onto a specialized bus headed for the Polish border, and her brother was waiting to hear that they had safely made it more than 400 miles out of the country. He’s already arranged for them to receive temporary visas to the U.S., if they can make it to the U.S. embassy in Poland.
“This is a country where they don’t know anyone, where they’re traveling with one suitcase,” he said.
Vykhrest set up a tip jar at the restaurant to collect money from customers to support them on the journey. In the first couple days, he’s managed to raise about $250, he said.
“We have gotten a great response so far,” said Jamie Charles, general manager of the Stammtisch. “Everybody here wants to hug on Sasha,” he said, using the traditional diminutive nickname for Oleksandr, which the chef shares with his niece. “He’s very tough.”
Julia’s has been supportive of Vykhrest, who has worked there for three and a half years and been friends with the owners even longer. The restaurant started flying the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag even before Russia began a full-scale invasion two weeks ago, as international tensions in the region began to heat up.
The chef has put on a defiant face to the Russian invasion, honoring his country’s defenders by wearing a t-shirt that says, “Have no fear, a Ukrainian is here.”
But he will still breath a sigh of relief when he finally sees his family safe and in person here in America.
“That would be awesome,” he said.
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