TOWN OF WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – A town of Watertown woman is keeping a close eye on what’s going on in Ukraine. Not only was she born there, she also has family in hiding there.
Julia Alteri was born in the former Soviet Union in what’s now Ukraine. She knows what life was like under Soviet rule, and she worries Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will mean terrible things for her family still living there.
Julia never thought Russia would attack Ukraine. When it did, she was heartbroken.
“Devastated, fear, anxious because I have family over there still,” she said. “One of the major cities that has been hit is Kharkiv, where I was born and where one of my uncles currently is.”
Her uncles, whose faces we’ve blurred for their safety, are religious leaders in Ukraine. Julia says they’ve received death threats because of their religious standing and are in hiding.
It was religious persecution that caused Julia and her immediate family to flee the former USSR in 1990.
“You couldn’t go to church publicly or everything secret,” she said. “My grandfather was tortured by the KGB because he met with an American missionary and they labeled him a traitor.”
Julia says when a KGB agent found out she and her family were Christians, they escaped from the USSR in the middle of the night. She was five-years-old.
Churches in America helped them settle in Syracuse. Julia says her family has tried to get more relatives to join them since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but her uncles decided to stay for their congregations.
After Russia attacked, Julia received messages from family still living in Ukraine.
“He’s like, ’Please pray for us. Our city is under attack. We’re in danger,’” she said.
Julia says her relatives in Ukraine were safe at last word. She’s hoping to get updates soon and prays her family survives the attack as well as whatever happens after that. Jeff.
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