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Video: Young Adults in Ukraine Find Purpose

Ukraine’s young adults have not been broken by Russia’s war against their country. Instead, many have chosen to work toward bettering themselves and society despite the challenges they face. Meet Maria Khudiakova (nee Ustinova), a young Caritas volunteer, in this video.

Maria Khudiakova, 22, fled her home in Oleshky, Ukraine, by herself in April 2022. She ended up in Brody, Ukraine, northwest of Ternopil.

“It was very, very stressful,” she recalls. “Even after the move, I had both visual and auditory hallucinations. I constantly thought there were explosions somewhere.”

However, she persevered and enrolled at Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts, where she majors in trumpet. She also met her husband, Fedir Khudiakov, 25, in Brody. He, too, was living there as an internally displaced person.

Ms. Khudiakova volunteers for Caritas Brody, working with teenagers in the organization’s “The 100 Talents Studio” project.

“Because children are sincere, they are positive, they are emotional,” she said. “And I, of course, came to life a little bit with them.”

Hear more from Ms. Khudiakova in this video. Then, read “Hardly Lost” in the December 2024 edition of ONE magazine.

Olivia Poust is assistant editor of ONE.

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