I'm Aaron Bray. My hometown is San Diego, California, but I've lived the past couple years in

Hardikiv Ukraine. I was a Peace Corps volunteer. That's how I ended up in Ukraine.

Is that a cat? Yes, that is my cat. She's my little war cat.

Aaron is just one of so, so many people who have had to leave Ukraine since Russia invaded last

month.

It's estimated that nearly one million Ukrainians, plus expats like Aaron, who call the country

home, have been forced to flee.

They're escaping the fighting and going to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and other countries bordering Ukraine.

I am in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Thankfully, I have a very large network of people willing to help me, and that was a big, big part of what helped me get through all this.

I'm Gustav Ariano.

You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Friday, March 3, 2022.

Today, Aaron's first person's story about what it was like to leave his adopted home of Ukraine and why he says he's going back.

Thank you. and why he says he's going back. My first introduction to Ukraine and Ukrainians was actually in middle school. There were quite a few Ukrainian refugees who came from the Soviet Union when it fell, and they ended up going to middle school with me in La Mesa Middle. And that was my first kind of introduction to Ukrainians. And then I saw everything happening with the Maidan Revolution, the Orange

Revolution on the news, and it really kind of just inspired me. And I've always wanted to go

somewhere to help, you know, no matter what. I always kind of figured it would be Africa,

because that's the typical Peace Corps place. But when I applied for the Peace Corps, I had two options that I qualified for, and one of them was Ukraine.

When I was given the position, I couldn't say yes fast enough.

I lived in small villages for a little over two years before COVID happened.

And my students joke that when somebody lives in a village for that long,

you know, something changes inside of them.

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