Anastasiia Solianyk, a refugee from Ukraine, talks about the grief of losing the life she imagined, and the courage of building a new one with her family in Nebraska. Hers is a story not only of survival, but of how people carry memory, protect hope, and look for steadiness and community when the ground keeps shifting.

Solianyk was born and raised in Ukraine and moved to the United States with her family in 2022. Her experience of displacement began much earlier, in 2014, when she had to leave her hometown in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Eight years later, after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Solianyk and her husband and daughter were forced to leave Ukraine and begin again in America. Professionally, she works in manufacturing quality and has more than ten years of experience in the metallurgical and automotive industries. Outside of work, she enjoys playing piano and painting, and much of her life today is devoted to supporting her young daughter’s figure skating journey. Now living in Nebraska, Solianyk brings a story of resilience, adaptation, family, creativity, and the difficult work of building a future after losing home more than once.