Editor’s note: Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine and images began circulating of lives forever changed, Denver Gazette Photo Editor Christian Murdock got a call from his mom. The family had deep roots in the region, she reminded her son.

“I swear I saw your Aunt Kathy on the news last night,” she told him.

“Well, Mom,” Murdock replied, “that could have been Aunt Kathy.”

Perhaps it inspires a thought in us all here in Colorado and across America: Along the twisting, turning, migratory paths of history, who is to say fate could not have placed us and our loved ones in the unimaginable?

Almost two years into the war, Murdock has traveled to Ukraine to capture the struggle of a generation. For the next couple of weeks, his pictures and stories aim to better connect us to the plight of a people not so far away — to bring them closer to our hearts this holiday season.

DNIPRO, Ukraine • Walking through a park next to an old Soviet factory on a cold gray day, Halyna Ladyga’s eyes begin to tear as she thinks back at the unimaginable turn of events.

“I was very happy. I had a good life,” Ladyga said Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.

She, her husband and their 6-year-old twins were ready to move into their new home in Svatovo, Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. Life was good — a life of happy kids, happy friendships and a good business.

Everything changed on Feb. 24, 2022. She and her husband were returning from their vacation in Costa Rica. They checked their cellphone during a layover in the Netherlands and read the news: The Russian troops had invaded their homeland.

“How was this possible in the 21st century?” Ladyga wondered, thinking about that day. Can it be a reality?” Her second thought was they must return home as soon as possible for their kids.

Their return flight to Kyiv, Ukraine, was canceled so they flew to Warsaw, Poland, and took a taxi 350 miles to the border of Ukraine. The line of people leaving Ukraine was 1,600 feet long and the vehicles stretched for 15 miles. They were along crossing into Ukraine.

Two days of taxis, a borrowed car and their own from the airport in Kyiv returned them home on the other side of Ukraine. Destroyed bridges from Russian airstrikes made for detours. They could hear the explosions from inside their car as they drove east. “The sounds of war,” Ladyga said. “I don’t know where I found the stronger force, but I knew I had to get back to my children.”

The children were at their grandmother’s home when they returned. “There were tears, cries and weeps,” she said, and many hugs and kisses. The Russian tanks entered their village March 8. A week later during a truce between the two sides, the Ladyga family left for Dnipro, where they now live.

In her wildest dreams, Ladyga never thought this would happen.

“I have a feeling that my future, my dream was stolen,” Ladyga said. “I was robbed of it. I was a business lady and I earned money, quite good money. I could travel. I could just live a normal life in my place. And all that just gone because of Russia. Our generation went to nothing.”