Iryna Bondarenko is standing on the porch of her home in Flint Hill with her husband, Matthew Caplins. The Ukrainian flag is seen behind her.
Iryna Bondarenko and her husband Matthew Caplins outside their home in Flint Hill.
Black baseball cap translates to: “Good evening, we are from Ukraine.”
Matthew built their home himself, he’s a mechanical engineer. In the living room, he cut the oak beams and used a special pigment for the mortar, given to him by a well-known restorer of historical homes.
The stone was found on a hiking trip in Ukraine, Matthew brought it back to Virginia to be part of their fireplace.
Hay in Ukraine, below, is being dried an old-fashioned way, in hay stacks.
In Ukraine, Bondarenko’s neighbor and his horse helped them to drag packages uphill
Iryna Bondarenko is standing on the porch of her home in Flint Hill with her husband, Matthew Caplins. The Ukrainian flag is seen behind her.
As war wages on in Ukraine, Rappahannock resident and Ukrainian native Iryna Bondarenko and her husband Matthew Caplins continue their efforts to aid the citizens of Ukraine after returning from the country this summer.
According to the couple, the Ukrainian opposition continues on as strong as ever and every citizen is doing what they can to strengthen the resistance. She said falling to Russia would not only result in a loss of freedom for the Ukrainian people but would also likely lead to the loss of many more Ukrainian lives.
“Whatever you do, you’re trying to donate something. You’re trying to work and donate your salary. Everybody in Ukraine wants Ukraine to win,” said Bondarenko. “We cannot afford to lose, actually.”
Bondarenko was living in Ukraine at the time of the Russian invasion and moved to Germany for work shortly after. She and Caplins returned to Ukraine in July for a few weeks to visit her family before coming back to the U.S. to live in Rappahannock.
Iryna Bondarenko and her husband Matthew Caplins outside their home in Flint Hill.
Black baseball cap translates to: “Good evening, we are from Ukraine.”
Bondarenko, originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, came to the U.S. in 2016 to study at the University of Maryland. She met Caplins while working in Washington, D.C., before returning to Ukraine in 2019. Caplins visited her several times in Ukraine, and the couple married in the city of Odesa, Ukraine, in 2021.
When the Russian attack began, Bondarenko was living in a town west of Kyiv. Caplins had returned to the U.S. a week earlier for work. She woke to air raid sirens at 5 a.m. indicating that the town’s airport had been bombed.
“At the same moment I realized there is no more time for complaining, sitting and waiting,” she said. “You must act.”
In the following days, she began harboring friends who managed to escape from Kyiv after Russia attacked the city. But her mother and stepfather remained in their village near Kyiv, seeking safe passage out of the area.
Matthew built their home himself, he’s a mechanical engineer. In the living room, he cut the oak beams and used a special pigment for the mortar, given to him by a well-known restorer of historical homes.
The stone was found on a hiking trip in Ukraine, Matthew brought it back to Virginia to be part of their fireplace.
Bondarenko said news reports of Russian soldiers shooting civilians attempting to evacuate Kyiv left many questioning whether it was safer to leave or remain in their homes. She said many who tried to leave were shot in the streets, or in their cars, by tanks and soldiers. Even fleeing through the woods proved dangerous, as it was occupied by the Russian army who placed landmines around escape routes.
Three weeks after the invasion, her mother and stepfather found someone in their village who was helping civilians escape the warzone. He guided them, along with their cat and dog, through a safe route in the forest, dodging any Russian soldiers and landmines.
“It was just scary in every way,” she said. “I wanted my mom to evacuate but I was also very much afraid that when she would evacuate that she would be shot.”
“You don’t know which is the safer option, and nobody knows,” added Caplins.
Bondarenko’s mother and stepfather eventually found refuge in a mountain village, a few days' journey from Kyiv. Meanwhile, Bondarenko’s brother, like many Ukrainians, volunteered to fight early on in the war as a member of the Territorial Defense Forces.
“I have many friends in Ukraine who went to fight the first day and still are there. For now, none of my closest friends died at war,” said Bondarenko. “But friends of friends have unfortunately died. The information that somebody is killed at war comes with a delay, so I don’t know if somebody is still alive or not.”
Hay in Ukraine, below, is being dried an old-fashioned way, in hay stacks.
Bondarenko said she stays tuned to social networks and maintains contact with close friends and family still in Ukraine to make sure they are still safe.
After the invasion, Bondarenko eventually moved to Germany where she worked as a data analyst and transportation planner at a university.
She would buy medicine from Romania, Hungary and Cyprus to send to those in need in Ukraine.
In July, Bondarenko and Caplins returned to Ukraine, meeting in Romania and taking a train across the border. They went to visit Bondarenko’s mother in a village in the Carpathian Mountains and help the Ukrainian people however they could.
The couple said the resolve among the Ukrainian people is nothing short of astounding. There is no doubt among the citizens of Ukraine that victory over the Russian invasion is inevitable, it’s just a matter of time, they said.
“I think everybody in Ukraine believes that they will win,” said Caplins. “It may take years; it may take a few months. It’s just a question of how long.”
In Ukraine, Bondarenko’s neighbor and his horse helped them to drag packages uphill
In the meantime, the couple have returned to Caplins’ mountain home near Flint Hill, which he began building in 2009. They are doing all that they can to support Ukraine and its people. Currently, Bondarenko has been gathering cold-weather clothing to send to Ukraine for the upcoming winter. The couple also sends whatever money they can afford to spare to friends in Ukraine who are helping provide essential supplies to people in need.
“I’m very proud that I have such wonderful friends who are not giving up,” Bondarenko said. “They’re always ready to fight and are doing all these things.”
She said her friends are donating, or gathering donations, for anything from sleeping bags to used cars for the many people who were uprooted from their homes and had to leave all their belongings behind.
For more information on how to help, contact Bondarenko at isbondarenko@gmail.com or (540) 340-2525.
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