Minium: After Graduating, ODU Women's Soccer Forward Yuliia Khrystiuk Will Take A Rare Trip Home To Ukraine For Christmas

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Nearly 5,000 miles east of Norfolk, Viktor and Iryna Khrystiuk watched a livestream on their computer on December 14 as their daughter, Yuliia Khrystiuk, received her Old Dominion University diploma at Chartway Arena.

Under normal circumstances, they would have traveled to Norfolk to participate in such a significant milestone in their daughter’s life.

But these are anything but normal times in Eastern Europe.

Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago and Victor is a firefighter and Iryna a doctor in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. During a war in which there has been wanton shelling of civilians, a doctor and firefighter are considered essential personnel and thus are not allowed to leave the country, even if their daughter is graduating.

Fortunately, Yuliia headed home a few days after graduation for a rare visit for Christmas. She left Norfolk last week to visit her brother near Gdansk, Poland, then was take a 20-hour train ride to Vinnytsia, Ukraine to be with her parents on Christmas Day.

“It will be so good to see my family,” she said. “I’ve missed them so much. And I always worry about them.”

Fortunately, the war has rarely touched Vinnytsia, a city in west central part of Ukraine, but that is far from the only challenge the senior forward for the ODU women’s soccer team has faced since coming to America.

She was 17 and her English was only passable when she enrolled in school in 2020. Alas, the pandemic shut down school during her first year -- in fact, she could not take a recruiting trip and signed with ODU sign unseen -- and she was forced into virtual isolation with a handful of teammates for much of a year.

She tore her ACL prior to the 2023 season, and it was no simple injury. “It was worse than a simple ACL tear,” said Michelle Barr, ODU’s associate head coach. “Her rehabilitation was quite extensive.”

And yet, through it all, she has persevered and excelled on the pitch and in the classroom. She received her bachelor’s degree in sport management and will be working on a Master’s beginning this spring.

This past season, she finished an internship with soccer team in which she handled scouting reports for every opponent, as well as the team’s outreach to young female soccer players called the “Monarch Sisters” program.

She hopes to become a coach when her career at ODU has ended. Although she is technically a senior, she received a medical redshirt for being injured in 2023 and will play for the Monarchs next season.

"It's been so awesome to watch her journey," said Angie Hind, ODU's head coach. "She's faced everything with such a positive attitude.

“She was so young when she came here. Now, I see a confident young woman who has been through a lot, and is still going through a lot, but has handled it all so well.

“Just to be a part of her journey has been incredible.”

Yuliia was in an airport near Washington D.C. on Feb. 24, 2022, when war broke out in her homeland. Curiously, she was on her way back to Norfolk after taking part in a camp for the Ukrainian national team.

It was 9 p.m. on the East Coast, but early morning in Ukraine. After seeing reports of the Russian invasion, she called her mother.

“I was actually the first one from my family to know about the war because I was awake,” she said. “They were still asleep.

“I called my Mom and she didn’t really know what was going on.”

Life became something of a nightmare from that day forward.

“That was the most challenging time of my life,” she said. “Because of the time difference, I couldn’t get up to date information during the day. So, I would just wake up in the middle of the night and would check the news and the situation in my city.”

Located 173 miles away from the capital city of Kyiv, Vinnytsia is far from the front lines, but has seen a fair share of rocket and drone attacks. Several attacks were directed at military targets, but others were aimed at civilians, including an attack on a medical and residential center that killed 28 people in 2022.

Her parents haven’t been in harm’s way yet, although her father recently went to the Poltava region of Ukraine, which is close to the front lines, to help fight wildfires.

“For the first time in a really long time, I was worried about him,” Yullia said.

Yuliia said one of the few good things to emerge from the war has been the outpouring of help from neighboring counties. More than six million Ukrainians are living overseas.

Poland is home to nearly one million Ukrainian refugees and Germany has accepted 1.2 million, according to the United Nations.

“Just realizing how other countries care about the Ukrainian people, to accept them in their cities and treat them equally and offer them so much help has been amazing,” she said.

There are likely to be peace talks in early 2025 after a new American administration takes over.

“I hope the war is going to stop and that our whole country can get together,” she said. “We want to get closer to other European countries and try to become a part of the European union and just try to move on and rebuilding our country.”

“Some guys from my hometown have been gone for a long time,” fighting in the war, she added. “It’s crazy because just a few years ago, we were at home like normal teenagers.

“Now they are fighting for their country.”

“It’s really hard,” she added after a pause.

She plans to return to Ukraine as a coach and said her injury in 2023 only reinforced that decision. The injury “was the most painful thing I have ever experienced,” she said, and after surgery, the subsequent rehabilitation also involved a ton of work and pain.

“I was able to learn so much about myself and the team because I was able to see things from a different perspective,” she said.

“I was on the sideline and it was cool to learn how much you can impact others without being on the field. I was still 100 percent invested in the team.

“Even if you can’t be on the field physically, you can make sure your teammates are better by helping them and supporting them.”

She says she hopes to become an assistant coach or a game analyst, roles that Yuliia is ideal to fill.

“She’s got a winning mentality,” Hind said. “She’s a real leader.

“She has such a voice in our locker room. Her work on scouting opponents has been brilliant.

“Whatever she chooses to do in life, she will succeed.”

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him  on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram