News
Ukraine conflict hits close to home; Luna student says he’s ready to help defend country
By Dave Kavanaugh
Luna Community College
“One day you have a regular life. The next, you have your body armor and an AK-47.”
When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in recent days, Aaron Harford – a student living there and remotely attending Luna Community College thousands of miles away in Las Vegas, N.M. – found himself relocating his family from the capital city of Kyiv to a different part of the country – and preparing for the worst.
Harford, 45, who’s been living in Ukraine the past four years, said he anticipated a violent attack by Russia and joined his wife Lesya and stepchildren in leaving their home – a high-rise apartment with glass walls and windows – for more secure accommodations elsewhere. He also readied his combat gear from a prior six-month stint with the Ukrainian third battalion, just in case.
Harford’s body armor, chevrons and combatant identification now share space with materials he uses to log into his Luna Community College math classes.
“Sadly, it is the biggest news in the world right now,” he said of his adopted home country, “and it looks like it’s going to get bigger.”
“The situation changes hourly,” he said. “Where I am near the border, it is a very odd tension, and we understand that there is nowhere safe to go.”
Originally from Los Angeles, Harford said he visited his mother, a longtime Las Vegas, N.M., resident, in the Meadow City a couple of times a year before moving there himself in 2016 and enrolling in classes at Luna. While he’d already attained a master’s degree in counseling, he wanted to go back to study math and engineering – “I love the honesty, simplicity and purity of math,” he said. He resumed his studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and began taking classes remotely.
“At Luna, the mathematics instruction under (STEM Director) Francisco Apodaca and (math instructor) Dr. Rita Surdi, it really is world class,” he said. “I’m quite proud to go there. I’m going to be proud to finish (my degree), God willing.”
While he plans to pursue a career in the aerospace industry, he has currently found a niche in teaching English to engineering students in Ukraine. That’s where he moved in May 2018, seeking to learn more about his mother’s family origins. His late grandmother, he said, fled Ukraine under duress decades ago, eventually returning to visit years later.
“I always wondered why someone who fled a country come back and visit,” he said. “Coming back here filled in so much of our back story.”
While he said he has enjoyed living in his ancestral homeland and has no regrets despite the current situation, he acknowledges the history of Ukraine as “absolutely horrific.” “I understand and have an appreciation for the families who fled in these dark times. I know now what it’s like to have this big, scary neighbor.”
Harford said he’s previously heard from a 93-year-old cousin the accounts of Stalin-era seizures of small farms and forced starvation. Fast forward to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it’s shelling of cities and reported use of hyperbaric weapons, he said. “They started launching these at the capital a couple of days ago … They started bombing cities all over – a massive attack. They kept saying they weren’t going to attack, but they lied. It’s something we’ve gotten used to.”
In Ukraine, the ominous telltale signs of war or pending war are abundant, and it’s nothing really new.
“Ukraine’s been at war for eight years,” Harford said. “So you know this has been a possibility. They’re trying to be more progressive and they want to be part of Europe. Since they gained independence in 1991, they’ve been trying to find their place in the world.”
There are encouraging signs and reason for optimism, he contended. The outpouring of global support for the Ukrainian cause has coincided with an internal rising of Ukrainians stepping up to defend their country.
“The quality of life is fragile,” he said. “But it’s worth defending. If you don’t have freedom, you don’t have anything … The Ukrainian people are not victims. They built an army out of nothing.”
“(Russian leader Vladimir) Putin’s going to fall,” Harford predicted. “All of Europe is now united … We have a country of 1.1 million soldiers and a country of 40 million with over half of them willing to defend themselves. It really disrupts things for people. But we understand that this is probably the end for modern Russia. Some of the finest patriots are in the Ukraine. They know what they’re fighting for.”
Harford acknowledges that it’s been a scary time for him and his family and their fellow Ukrainians. A countrywide mobilization is in effect, and many of those are able to are fleeing homes, either within the country or to neighboring countries. Key places like airports have been targeted, and cities especially in the eastern part of the country are under fire. Stories of Russian shelling of civilian buildings, including a children’s hospital and a kindergarten, are circulating in media accounts. “People are just going to work or on the bus home, and the shelling starts. It’s the damnedest thing.”
“I’m scared like a lot of other people,” he said. “But I understand what we’re doing. And I don’t really want to leave. My grandparents had to; they had no choice. One of several different armies would be the end of you back then. That’s what happened. (But) we have a real chance of independence and finally be done with this former Soviet power.”
“How do I feel? Tense a bit. You stay in a war zone, you get used to it, and you understand this could happen at any time. I’m angry my two stepdaughters (aged 17 and 15) have to live through it, instead of getting ready to go to college. They’re making camouflage. They should be having a carefree life getting ready for university.”
Harford said he’s focused on taking care of his family but considers it an obligation and duty to serve should the situation devolve into partisan warfare. In the meantime, he said he continues writing and trying to keep people back home informed on what is going on.
“I’m no Rambo, but I’m more than willing to support, whatever the situation is,” he said. “(The Ukrainians) bravery and willingness to step up is the primary reason the world’s been able to help. We’re going to win … It makes it very clear to me (though). Freedom is not just an abstract concept. It’s not something you just watch in ‘Braveheart.’ It’s a real thing. Here, it’s so stark.”
While Harford said he’s ready to help his home country however he may be needed, he said he does hope to be able to finish his math degree by the end of the summer if all goes well. He wants to continue teaching English to engineers and engineering students in eastern Europe.
“I never knew there’d be a demand for it,” he said. “We take it for granted, but the rest of the world does not. That’s a project I’m working on. That’s another way to open up the former Soviet countries. I really want to work on something in aerospace. I’m frustrated that in humanity we have so much technological progress and we’re still killing each other. It’s so frustrating to me. The world is so open to us; nothing is impossible. You can be just about anything you want to be, and the Internet has changed it so it doesn’t matter where you live.”