'I'm Scared': From Tribeca to Ukraine, An Emigré's Struggle to Aid Her Family.

Elena Sokina, with husband and business partner Sean Cronin, at NYLO Fitness, the studio they opened in Tribeca last October. Sokina, who trained as a lawyer in Moscow, came to the U.S. in 2016. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

NYLO Fitness [1], a Tribeca exercise studio at 279 Church Street, co-owned by Elena Sokina and her husband Sean Cronin, is raising money for Ukrainian relief. Suggested $50 donations for upcoming fitness and yoga classes will go to the International Committee for the Red Cross. Sokina, 39, a native of Moscow with family roots in Ukraine, talked to Trib editor Carl Glassman about her efforts to help her brother and his family in Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Below is her story, edited for length and clarity.

My grandma was Ukrainian. She lived in Crimea and I used to spend six months there every year with her because I was a sickly child and Moscow is not the greatest place for a child who always catches a cold. I spent one year in a Ukraine school, a trial to see if my health would be better in winter there. 

We are very connected to Ukraine and every Russian family has some sort of connection. When it was the Soviet Union, it was one country so people traveled, people got married. The war is unthinkable. 

My brother was living in my grandmother’s home with his family when Crimea was annexed and my brother didn’t want to become assimilated into Russia. He took his five kids and wife further into Ukraine, to Izmail, where he has been working in IT.

When the war started no one believed it was going to happen. Even when the military was at the border, people were like, Putin’s not going to do it. It was incomprehensible because our nations are so connected. We are not supposed to kill each other. We are brother nations. We went through the Second World War together. People are saying our ancestors are spinning in their graves because we are killing each other. 

When Russia did invade people thought maybe they will go to Kyiv and it will be over. Who would have thought that the Ukrainians would fight so hard. So when the military base outside Izmail was bombed and the communications in Izmail were damaged there was no cooking gas, there were electricity problems, that’s when my brother understood they are bombing cities. 

Ukraine has a law that males can’t leave. So my brother decided that maybe his wife and kids can go. So they started to look for options and at that point it was impossible to send money to Ukraine already, the banks were not giving money. 

By that time it was very hard to find transportation. From here I was trying to arrange transportation to Bulgaria. I was reaching out to everyone I know, someone to take care of them. I was looking for hands on the ground. They needed a destination. They needed transportation, it turned out they even needed cash. Like millions of other Ukrainians, they needed help. There were four helpless kids and a helpless woman and a panicking guy who is trying to save his family and you are here, trying to buy their lives. A person asked for $5,000 to drive and pick them up, and I said yes. Then he changed his mind, because no one wants to drive into a war zone.

Finally a former boss of mine living in France connected me to a person in Romania. I hardly know anything about him but he arranged the transportation, arranged the hotel, arranged everything at his own cost. Didn’t take money from me to this day, I’m trying to give him money back and he’s, like, there’s no need. He asked me to post on Facebook if people need him they can find him and he’ll help. He literally arranged picking them up, bring them there, legal help, translator because they don’t speak Romanian. He made sure they made it to Bulgaria and he said if they need anything in Bulgaria to reach out to him and he will still help.

The European Union is being very considerate. They allow them to stay for a year without any papers or anything. For now, the young kids and wife are safe.

My brother’s 17-year-old son stayed with his father. They were afraid that if he tries to cross the border they will not let him because it is two or three months before he is draftable. My brother told me he is now busy in production of camouflage nets that cover buildings. We talk now by the app Telegram but it is very difficult. I haven’t called him for two days because I have nothing to say. He can die. He can freaking die and I don’t know what to say to him. I told him I’ll take care of your family and that’s what I’m doing. As soon as he let his children go, he started to regret it. Because you know there is a feeling, when you are close, you will protect them. He listened to the rational mind that they would be safer far from him, but now when they are actually far away… I tell him they are going to be fine, we will take care of them but, you know, these are little children. So he is heartbroken. 

It’s stressful for me. I feel scared for the people in Russia. The humanitarian catastrophe in Russia will be—I know how it sounds compared to the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine right now—but prices for food are like three times already. People are losing their jobs by the thousands. And there are no other jobs. So this is a sign that we are going to have hunger again, like in the 90s. I grew up in the 90s. This is not fun. Watching the news right now is scary, you are worried for Ukrainian families and friends, you are worried for your Russian family and friends, and most of all you just feel helpless. And that’s why I am very glad that we can do this fundraiser. Because right now I am doing something. At least something to help Ukraine.  

Go here [2] for more information on the NYLO Fitness fundraising classes for Ukraine relief.