In a powerful interview on this week's March Madness 365, Andy Katz speaks with San Francisco basketball's Volodymyr Markovetskyy, of Ukraine, and Dzmitry Ryuny and Yauhen Massalski of Belarus, about supporting each other through the crisis in Ukraine brought about by Russia's invasion.
Markovetskyy's father is a patrol officer in Ukraine. His mother and sister recently traveled to safety in Lithuania.
"I talked to my mom and first thing I hear (is) she's crying and told me Russia attacked us," Markovetskyy said, describing a phone conversation with his mother. "Like in this moment, I really lose myself, just like something broke inside me. I don't know how to react to this information because I believe only good things. I can't even imagine (that) this can happen."
You can watch the full interview here:
Markovetskyy said his hometown of Truskavets is about an eight-hour drive from Kyiv. It's in the western part of the country, near the border with Poland.
"After this, I started (to) really worry about my family," he said, "because I'm in this moment, I really understand it's not a joke, it's now super serious. Can you imagine today, in the world we live in, that my family will leave the home because it's dangerous, because they can like really die?" he said. "How crazy that is?"
