Ukraine native in Hardin County hopes to help homeland

SAVANNAH, Tenn. — One local man is helping his homeland from across the ocean.

“My heart starts pumping, knocking faster, because I don’t know for sure if my sister calls me and tells me bad news that something happened,” said Ruslan Kucherenko.

Kucherenko has lived in the U.S. for 16 years, but is native to Ukraine. And with the recent turmoil between Russia and Ukraine, he says he fears for his family’s safety every day.

“I talked to my sister and she said for five or six times, she has her daughter in shelters because of alarms,” he says. “It is possible they will attack it. Of course, for all of Ukraine right now it is a hard time.”

Kucherenko served in the Ukrainian military for 22 years before moving to the U.S. He says he wants to go home to help fight with his family, but his sister told him to stay.

“She said ‘No, don’t do this right now, please,’ because we have in the family two men, my brother-in-law and nephew are in the Army. [She said] ‘It would be better for me if you stayed and tried to help us.'”

So Kucherenko says he found a way to help them from Savannah, Tennessee.

“For right now, myself, I have donated $1,000 and I will do it more.”

And he is asking anyone in Tennessee that’s willing to help to donate what they can.

“I’m sure this will help save many lives in Ukraine because right now for Ukraine it is everything. Soldiers need weapons, people who sit in the basement need water and need food.”

If you would like to donate to help citizens of Ukraine, click here for more information.

For more stories out of Hardin County, click here.