CLEVELAND — "I was not planning to get out of Ukraine," Dr. Roman Sheremeta tells us. "I was planning to come and visit my family and then go back."
A professor at Case Western Reserve University, Sheremeta had been in Kyiv during this past week, but is now home in Northeast Ohio. In the process, he was forced to leave behind his mother, his father, his brother, his entire family."
"The next day, the [Russian] troops invaded, and I had to stay here," Sheremeta lamented. "Am I happy that I'm here? I have very mixed feelings about that."
Sheremeta was in his home country to open up an American university. Now, from his house in one of Cleveland's southwest suburbs, he watches closely as President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address, and is relieved when the president mentions the state of Ukraine's union.
"I wanted him to say 'We stand with [the] Ukrainian people," Sheremeta said as Biden uttered those exact words. "That's a strong statement."
Sheremeta says Ukraine is worse than anyone can imagine, and as hard as it was for the professor to leave, he can only pray that the world will do right by the democratic country.
"We did not believe that this would happen," Sheremeta said of the invasion, adding its very important for Ukrainians to known Americans are on their side.
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