CSUN doubles tennis partners from Russia and Ukraine find support from each and every other

When the initial Russian bombs started falling on Kyiv final Thursday, Yuliia Zhytelna figured out about it not from her dad and mom, Volodymyr and Natalia, who were asleep in the Ukrainian cash, but from a information bulletin in the Sacramento lodge foyer where by she was undertaking homework.

“I really could not discuss,” she explained. “I just started off crying mainly because I could not think about my region, my peaceful nation, in a war. I’m shaking now simply because I bear in mind that sensation.”

So the Cal Point out Northridge tennis player turned to just one individual she understood could dry those tears and stop that shaking. She turned to Ekaterina Repina, her roommate and doubles lover.

She turned to a Russian.

“That’s Kat,” Zhytelna mentioned. “She was supporting me so substantially. I was crying on her shoulder. She was with me.”

It appears to be a unusual pairing now, placing a Ukrainian and a Russian together in the very same resort place, significantly a lot less on the similar side of a tennis court. But right up until previous week — or at least right before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 — it seemed all-natural. The two countries experienced additional in widespread than they did apart.

“My mom’s Russian,” Zhytelna explained. “And she gave start to five Ukrainians. I have hardly ever had difficulties with Russians. I have Russian pals.”

Repina is amid the most current.

“They ended up previously tremendous near. And now I assume they are even nearer,” mentioned Gary Victor, the Northridge tennis coach. “They’re sharing a life knowledge that we can only think about. This has introduced them closer and their bond is genuinely unbreakable.”

The staff has bonded as properly.

“The very last 3 times have been a flood of tears,” Victor claimed. “Not just amongst them. But between their teammates as effectively, who truly experience sad for them and their people and the international locations. And just their worlds getting turned completely upside down.”

Repina, who Victor stated has mates and relations in the Russian army, declined to converse for this tale, fearing it could bring about difficulties for family members users at property. But she, also, is sensation the stress of the war.

Pairing the two appeared obvious in advance of the season. Repina, who performed two many years at Iowa State before transferring to Northridge, is strong on the baseline and Zhytelna is an outstanding serve-and-volley player. They can also converse to each and every other in Russian.

But Victor also noticed a mentoring option for Repina, 20, a redshirt senior who is much more professional than the 18-12 months-outdated Zhytelna, a freshman. So in addition to acquiring the two enjoy with each other, the mentor also had them place with each other on the road.

They turned inseparable.

“Kat can be a massive sister to Yuliia and exhibit her the ropes of school tennis,” he reported. “And they get together fantastic.”

Now they’re leaning on just one another as hardly ever in advance of.

Hrs right after the bombing of Kyiv commenced, Repina and Zhytelna stumbled by a doubles loss to Sacramento Condition, so they did not participate in in Northridge’s reduction to UC Davis the future working day.

But they talked and cried and hugged.

“The [Russians] were trying to assault the funds and I was on the cellphone with my family,” Zhytelna reported. “I could not enjoy. I just felt like I essential to be with them.”

Added Victor: “We’ve absent by way of psychological issues, family members things, but nothing with this kind. If they want the distraction, we’d enjoy to have them out there. But if they just cannot manage it right now, we have acquired to do what is greatest for their psychological overall health.”

Zhytelna, whose brilliant smile is commonly as big as her provide, admits she can feel of tiny more now than the war and her spouse and children.

“The reality is I’m not sturdy,” she said in between tears. “I’ve been crying 3 times in a row.”

The war is a lot less than a 7 days previous, but it has by now killed hundreds, displaced 1000’s and sent tens of thousands much more fleeing throughout Ukraine’s borders as refugees. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set his nuclear power on warn as troops advance on Kyiv, exactly where Zhytelna’s household has hunkered down, uncertain what to do up coming.

“I just talked to them,” she mentioned among tears late Sunday early morning. “They had 4 sirens of air hazard. And they have been discussing, like, really should they go to the bomb shelter? Or just remain home?

“My sister’s definitely mad because my parents don’t want to go away the residence.”

Northridge professors have asked Zhytelna, a broadcast communications main, to provide lectures about the condition at residence other folks have permitted her to postpone assignments and checks.

Schoolwork, tennis, sleep — all of that is a luxury for another working day.

“I couldn’t slumber three days in a row. For the reason that I was frightened that I will near my eyes and I will wake up at 6 a.m. and my mother will convey to me, ‘Oh, you never have a property any longer,’ ” she reported. “It’s in fact transpired nowadays with my friend. They woke up they really do not have a residence.”

In the meantime, Zhytelna reported she’s making an attempt to teach other people. She’s supporting arrange a campus vigil for afterwards this 7 days and is turning out to be an pro on military techniques, arguing that NATO and the U.S. could enable Ukraine by closing the airspace over the nation, denying it to Russian warplanes.

In the meantime Zhytelna, who speaks English as a third language, carries on to confide and confess and cry with the teammate whose country is waging war on hers. With the teammate with whom she shares a court docket in opposition and a resort home on the street.

“We communicate in one language,” she stated of Repina, “and it is easier to specific your emotion. She’s genuinely supported me.”

Ukraine’s conflict, just after all, isn’t with the Russian individuals. It is with the Russian govt. And that would make her marriage with Repina equally an act of defiance and an example for how the two nations can come collectively once again when the shooting stops.

“I have good friends in Russia. I never have a issue with the Russians,” she claimed. “But I really hope that they will not go to our place.”