By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – It was 1-1 in the third set Friday afternoon when Yuliia Starodubtseva's singles tennis match was halted after Old Dominion clinched the match against Missouri, 4-0.
The senior from Kakhovka, a city in southern Ukraine, had not played well and with good reason. She walked to a nearby bench, buried her head in a towel and cried as coaches and teammates tried to console her.
Her tears reflected events 5,000 miles away in her country, now being brutally invaded by the Russian Army. Her father called just before the match to tell her one of thousands of tragic stories being played out across Ukraine.
Her dad had driven safely home on a road with Russians on either side. Ten minutes later, one of his friends was shot in the head while driving down the same road.
That could have been my father, she said to herself.
Did his friend live? She didn't ask. He was shot in the head, so she presumes he is dead.
Her family is hiding out in basements of two different houses. They are communicating with Yuliia via the internet.
"I just hope the internet doesn't shut down," she said.
They awoke one morning and crept upstairs and were cooking breakfast when shooting broke out, so they retreated back into the basement. The connection with Yuliia broke as they headed downstairs.
Only later, after she got a text message from her father, did she know everyone was safe.
Her hometown was captured by the Russians the first day of the invasion, then recaptured by Ukrainian soldiers. But fighting remains intense.
The Russians did not bring enough provisions, she said, and she worries what will happen when they begin foraging for food.
"I hope they take food and leave peacefully," she said.
ODU women's tennis coach Dominic Manilla hugs Yuliia Starodubtseva after Sunday's victory
Yuliia recalls stories her mother told her of her great grandmother hiding from German troops, who brutalized Ukraine during World War II.
"I never thought that would happen again in my country," she said.
The Russian invasion has touched a nerve on both the ODU men's and women's tennis teams. Both recruit heavily overseas and women's coach Dominic Manilla, whose team is ranked 22nd nationally, has had a pipeline to Ukraine and other central European countries.
In 2019, four of his starters were from Ukraine.
Associate head coach Yana Sokolenko is from Minsk, Belarus, Ukraine's northern neighbor.
Men's coach Dominik Mueller is from Germany and also recruits in central Europe. Among his seniors is Yevhen Sirous, who is from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. Kharkiv is the scene of door-to-door, urban fighting.
His family moved from Kharkiv years ago to a town close to the eastern Ukrainian city of Lviv near the Polish border. "I am so happy that they are safe," he said.
But Sirous' wife, Daria, is sick with worry over her family, which is hiding in a bunker in Kharkiv.
His brother, an artist, is in Kyiv, the nation's capital, which is under siege by the Russian Army. It has held out for four days, much longer than the Russians expected, American officials have said.
His brother is sheltering in the city's subway system.
Yevhen and Yuliia say their coaches and teammates done everything they can to help.
"ODU is like a family," Yevhen said. "I've gotten emails from former professors, from students.
Yevhen Sirous
"My teammates have been so supportive. My coach told me that I do not have to practice, I do not have to play. He said to take the time to take care of myself."
He took one day off – to march in a protest in downtown Norfolk. He played in matches this weekend. He won his singles match on Saturday when the No. 45 Monarchs defeated Furman, 4-0, and then lost his match on Sunday when the Monarchs defeated Virginia Tech, 4-3.
"Today you could see he was emotional," Mueller said. "He had been playing really well. I think he used tennis as a distraction.
"But today I think he ran out of emotional energy. He finally hit the wall.
"It's so tough. I can't imagine what he is going through.
"I feel like my players are also my kids. I care about them like they are my kids. We are a family."
Yuliia said she's also received nothing but support from her coaches and teammates. Her teammates all arrived for Sunday's match against Penn with the Ukrainian flag painted on their faces or shoulders.
There were several Ukrainian flags held by the 100 or so spectators.
Yuliia Khrystiuk, a member of the women's soccer team, came with friend Liana Mostrianska, both draped in the Ukrainian flag and wearing Ukrainian soccer shirts. Both are from the Ukraine and say that, so far, their families are safe.
"We came here to support Yuliia," Khrystiuk said.
Because Russian troops staged attacks into Ukraine from Belarus, Yana said ODU's three Belorussian players feel some level of guilt. It isn't their fault, of course.
Belarus is run by a dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, who was re-elected in 2020 in a vote that election monitors said was rigged in his favor. He is pro-Russian and has brutally repressed any dissent.
"They're against the repression in our country," Jana said of the ODU players.
Yuliia Starodubtseva and Tatsiana Sasnouskaya
"This will not affect us as a group. This team is too close."
Yuliia said she doesn't blame the Belorussian people, nor even the Russians.
More than 3,000 Russians have been arrested for demonstrating against the war in Moscow and St. Petersburg, hometown of Vladimir Putin.
"I have Russian friends," she said. "And they support me.
"I'm grateful for the brave people in Russia who have protested."
She also has the support of Tatsiana Sasnouskaya, her doubles partner who is also from Minsk, Belarus. It was Tatsiana who suggested the team come out adorned in Ukrainian flags.
"I appreciate so much that it was her idea," Yuliia said.
Yuliia is heartened by what she has heard about the bravery of her countrymen.
She recounted the tale of a Ukrainian woman who confronted an armed Russian solider, asking him "What are you doing here?" She told him to put sunflower seeds in his pocket so that she could enjoy the sunflowers after he was killed and buried.
Yuliia teared up when telling the story about 13 Ukrainian sailors who when ordered to surrender an island to a Russian ship, had a vulgar response. They replied to the Russians with an expletive and then were all killed.
"They knew they were going to die," she said. "How brave can you be?"
More than 20,000 civilians have accepted offers to take up arms against the Russians in Kyiv. Yuliia said she saw a video of elderly men asking for guns so that they could fight.
"Some were hardly able to walk," she said. "They just want to help. I'm really proud of them. They're not scared. They just want to fight back."
When I interviewed Yuliia earlier last week, she said she didn't feel especially patriotic and she didn't mind when people call her Russian – she and her family speak Russian at home, as do most people in eastern Ukraine.
That changed after the invasion began. She no longer wants to be called a Russian. "And I am so proud of my country," she said.
Russian is also the language largely spoken in Kharkiv, but Yevhen said he and his wife decided this week to begin speaking only Ukrainian. Most Ukrainians speak both Russian and Ukrainian.
"Ukraine is our country," he said. "That's our culture.
"The way we're feeling right now, I can't even express it."
Yevhen said he watched the official Russian news agency and was horrified. Reporters are telling the Russian people that Ukrainians fired the first shots and that Russian soldiers are fighting to protect themselves.
As for that island where 13 Ukrainian sailors died, the Russian media said 83 Ukrainians surrendered and went home peaceably, he said.
"It made me sick to watch," he said.
Natalya Malenko, who was a senior on the 2019 ODU tennis team, came by the tennis center Sunday to support Yuliia. She fears for her family as well.
"For my entire life, my mother was the strongest person I know," she said. "But to hear her crying, to know she's scared. You just don't know what's going to happen.
"My family has friends who picked up a gun and sent us a picture saying they are going to defend our country. And we haven't heard back from them since."
Her family is trying to escape Ukraine, but she knows her uncle, who has a 12 year old daughter, can't go with them. All men between 18 and 60 are being conscripted into the Army.
Natalya Malenko
"It's heartbreaking," she said. "We all put up a brave face and try to laugh but then we come home and we don't sleep and we cry and wait and pray."
All have been heartened by the world's nearly unanimous condemnation of Russia. The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Empire State Building and hundreds of other buildings, including the Wachovia Center in downtown Norfolk, have been bathed in Ukraine's national colors.
Marches and protests have occurred from London to New York to Istanbul, but the largest occurred in Berlin, Germany, where more than 100,000 people marched underneath the Brandenburg Gate, many carrying Ukrainian flags.
Germany announced it will send 500 Stinger missiles and 1,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. Previously, because of its dark history during World War II, Germany had never provided lethal weapons to any country other than Israel.
Poland and other eastern European countries are providing sanctuary to Ukrainians escaping the war. NATO agreed on Saturday to restrict Russia's access to bank funds.
Manilla talked to his team Saturday and challenged them to try to be part of a generation that changes the world.
"I told them if the president of Russian and the president of Ukraine were women, this would not have happened," he said. "I told them the world needs a generation of people like you because our generation has messed things up."
When I interviewed Yuliia Saturday afternoon, Manilla cried while she recounted the experiences of her family.
That, my friends, is how much he cares about Yuliia.
Yuliia Starodubtseva
Yuliia was focused and ready to play Sunday afternoon. Her singles opponent was Iuliia Bryzgalova, a native of Moscow, Russia. Yuliia won easily, 6-3, 6-0, and drew a standing ovation from the crowd.
"She was very respectful," Yuliia said of Bryzgalova. As for the Ukrainian flags, "I told her to not take it personally. She said, 'Don't worry, I understand why this was happening.
"She was very respectful and understanding, which I appreciated."
Yuliia said she does not know where she would be without the support of her coaches and teammates. She calls Manilla her substitute father and Yana her substitute mother.
"This team is my family in America," she said.
Her family in Ukraine is safe for now, she said Sunday. They stocked up on food before the fighting began.
Yevhen is worried about a young friend of his in the Ukrainian Army.
"I texted him and he didn't get back to me right away," he said. "I was so worried. But then he responded.
"He looks 15 or 16. When I see him in a uniform with a gun, it's crazy. I can't imagine how strong he is. He said, 'we're going to fight.' He was smiling at me.
"I have never been so proud of my country, of my people. They are confident. They are making jokes. They are so strong.
"If they can be that strong, then we must be strong here, too."
Minium: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Has Hit Both ODU Tennis Teams Hard
