Ellsworth High School alumna Leann Peterson left Monday for Gdansk, Poland, where she will be helping refugees from Ukraine, the country she has called home for 19 years. A missionary with Fire International Inc., she is anxious to return to her church and the people they serve.

“I will be so glad to see my people and be able to bring a breath of fresh air and encouragement,” Peterson said. “At the same time to just know that I can do something. And hopefully we won’t be there long. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back soon to Ukraine.”

Peterson, who lives in Kryvvi Rih, Ukraine, returned to the United States Dec. 14 to visit family. She had planned to return to her adopted home Feb. 1, but a COVID diagnosis postponed her departure. Two members of her church were in Minneapolis for a fundraiser in February, so she changed her flight in order to fly out with them on Feb. 15. While they were able to go, she was not and again postponed her departure, this time to Feb. 21. She was all packed and ready to go when the flight was cancelled.

See UKRAINE, Page 8

Ellsworth High School alumna Leann Peterson is a missionary with Fire International Inc. She has spent the past 19 years in Kryvvi Rih, Ukraine. Photo courtesy of Leann Peterson UKRAINE

From Page 1

On Feb. 23, she was exercising on the treadmill at her sister’s house when she learned that civil air space had been closed over Ukraine. She was shocked. She felt helpless. She watched breaking news reports along with the rest of the world.

Her journey

Peterson attended a Bible school in Florida in her early 20s and joined Fire International Inc., a sending agency for international missionaries. She completed a three-month internship with Church of Praise in Ukraine and found the place she belonged. She is now fluent in Russian and dedicated to helping the people of her adopted homeland.

Nineteen years later, Peterson is entrenched as a church leader, preacher, evangelist and teacher. She has worked extensively with transitional housing, special needs children and orphans. Eight years ago, they opened Church of Truth (truehope.org) in order to help college-age orphans, a population that is often overlooked.

“Ukraine has gone more to foster care,” Peterson said. “But when they graduate, the would be on their own and just sort of fall off. The church opened eight years ago to be a family for these kids.”

Church members not only teach them about the Bible, but provide them with practical, onthe- job lessons to make sure they’re well-established before they’re off on their own. The team meets with kids in colleges, conducting Bible studies and life skill classes. A dormitory space allows them a place to stay, if they wish.

“God really gave us this mission to start this home for orphans,” Peterson said. “Plus people who are in need know they can come to us for help, for basic needs.”

The church serves some 200 people, led by Pastor Max Fetisov and his wife, Amanda. Fetisov is still in Ukraine, while his wife fled with women and children to Poland.

War comes

Peterson said on Feb. 24, Russia bombed all Ukraine’s military bases and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. It’s the largest mobilization of armed forces Europe has seen since World War II. According to Peterson, the invasion is not surprising to most in Ukraine. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s and NATO expanded eastward (although Ukraine is not part of NATO), Putin has called NATO’s expansion a threat to Russia and the Soviet Union’s one-time place as a world superpower. An article published in the New York Times March 11 states Putin has insisted that Ukraine is “fundamentally part of Russia, culturally and historically.”

In 2014, mass protests in Ukraine forced out President Viktor Yanukovych, who was a Putin ally. In response, Russia invaded Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea, a peninsula along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Russia also stirred up a separatist rebellion that resulted in areas of the Donbas region to be under Russian control.

“Putin wants land access to the Peninsula of Crimea, he wants land, he wants gas, and he’s worried he would be cut off,” Peterson said. “There’s always been talk that he might come in and take this tract of land. We never thought it would be like this. We thought it would be an isolated thing in one specific area, just in that south part.

“Everyone in Ukraine knows he’s crazy.” The southern portion of her home city, Kryvvi Rih, has been evacuated. The city, which is located in central Ukraine, is 62 miles long and is home to about 680,000 people. It’s built along the iron ore mines at the confluence of two rivers. On March 9, Russian troops came close to the city, but so far, nothing else has happened there. Her friends who are still there report hearing many missiles overhead and on Friday, the small airport there was bombed.

“The troops are very close but they haven’t entered the city yet,” Peterson said. “This morning (Saturday) the sirens went off for five hours straight.”

Peterson’s church has helped more than 500 women and children escape to Poland. Trains are still operating from Kryvvi Rih, so there are still possibilities to leave. However, some women have chosen to stay to care for boys at the orphan center.

While in Wisconsin, Peterson has spent her mornings on the phone talking to her friends and church family in Poland and Ukraine. So far, those she knows in Ukraine still have electricity, heat and internet.

“But the psychological effects on them, you can tell,” Peterson said. “It’s taking a toll. They are amazing, resilient people. But five hours of sirens going off – it’s so hard. The last nine days sirens have been going off, within 30 miles.”

Peterson believes Putin picked now to invade because he knew politically, there wouldn’t be a lot of strong opposition from the world’s leaders. He believes Ukraine and Russia are one people.

“They have similar roots, but a different story,” Peterson said. “He’s trying to demoralize our nation, but all it does is make Ukrainians love Ukraine more. He wants the Soviet Union back. It was a shame on Russia that it fell apart. He wants that power.”

What’s next?

Peterson left on Monday for Poland, where she has rented an apartment and a car for the next month, in Gdansk. She will join others from her church who have fled Ukraine. She and the pastor’s wife will visit and encourage their parishioners, who are scattered across Poland.

“All of the women there are just so thankful,” Peterson said. “They are being treated well. They have food and places to sleep.”

Some members of her church, including the pastor’s wife, are staying in a community center. The Polish government will be providing them apartments sometime soon, Peterson said. Those in Ukraine will continue helping people to get to the train station, so they can leave (as long as the government allows).

The most common question here in the United States that Peterson has been is asked is “How can we help?”

“You can pray and you can donate, so we can buy supplies there,” Peterson said. “Food prices have gone up four to five times. There is not much on the shelves.”

Miracles are still happening, Peterson recalled with tears in her eyes. Men in her church went around the city for six hours, searching for food. They found a few things, but not much. When they returned, two men appeared in a van with a load of food. No one knows who they were or where they came from, but it’s an occurrence that won’t soon be forgotten.

The elderly are especially affected by the higher food prices, Peterson said. They can’t afford food, simply put. All funds raised by Fire International will go to helping people on the ground. Sending supplies by mail isn’t feasible at this time as delivery is unreliable.

“Nobody knows how long it will last,” Peterson said. “The Russian economy is being destroyed (by sanctions). Maybe the Russians will start to rise up.”

Russian soldiers have low morale and some will defect, Peterson said. Some are finding out that they’ve been lied to by Putin. They’re under the impression that Ukraine is an impoverished nation who wants Russian help, which simply isn’t true. They’re seeing that now, Peterson said.

Ukrainian men of fighting age are not allowed to leave their country, Peterson continued. Reservists are still being called up, so a draft has not occurred yet.

“Many Ukrainians live outside the country,” Peterson said. “They are not just abandoning their country. They are going back.”

She describes the Ukrainian people as tough. When the USSR fell in 1991, Ukraine was riddled with poverty and hunger. The people survived on flour, oil and salt. They rebuilt the country and the infrastructure. They survived Stalin’s famine, called Holodomor, in the 1930s, not to mention World War II.

“When you see stories about villagers with pitch forks taking back a Russian tank, It’s the truth,” Peterson said. “They are a fearless people. Because of these things they’ve lived through, they have a love for their country and their land. They are survivors.”

Peterson loves the Ukrainian people, who she lovingly called “stubborn.” Her church feels they are in the right place at the right time, to be a beacon of hope in a time of terrifying chaos. She wants to show them there is a God who cares.

Peterson wants to stress one last point: Hating Russia doesn’t help anything.

“There are a lot of innocent Russians,” Peterson said. “It’s their government. They are under an evil regime. Almost everyone I know has family in Russia. That’s why a lot of Russian soldiers don’t want to fight.”

To donate, go to fire-international.org and click on “Ukraine Relief.” Peterson promised to keep The Journal updated on her church’s mission.

Ellsworth native Leann Peterson spoke about Ukraine in River Falls on Saturday, March 12 at River Falls Public Library, where she handed out postcards with her church’s fundraising information. Photo by Sarah Nigbor