BERLIN — That unshakable feeling surfaced even when his eyes were tightly shut at night.
For 13-year-old Roman Tkachuk, that uneasiness in his sleep stemmed from the foreboding sense that danger was on the horizon.
That anxiety the young teenager felt and woke him up in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 24, 2022, was the ongoing war in his home country of Ukraine, set to intensify with Russia's invasion.
Tkachuk recalls waking up at 4:30 a.m.
"I got up and checked the news and heard that Russia brought a lot of tanks and soldiers," he said. "Around 5 a.m., Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, got bombed. The sirens started going off in every single city. Around 7 a.m. the same day, we heard the bombs drop around our city. They targeted, I believe, the airport, radio stations and communication services. That did affect us a lot."
For the Hiland High School senior student-athlete and his family, life in Ukraine was both charming and fulfilling. Then war struck and altered their lives.
Yet, Tkachuk's relationship with sports just might have been his ultimate refuge.
Life in Ukraine, war and escape
When now 18-year-old Tkachuk speaks about Ukraine, more specifically the city of Rivne, in the western part of Ukraine — where he lived during the first 13 years of his life with his father Ivan, 49, mother Tatiana, 44, oldest sister Solomia, 19, and youngest sister Zlata, 12, — his description sounds picturesque.
"All of my family was in the same city. I saw them every day," Tkachuk said. "I loved my school. I loved my friends. I loved the environment. My city was beautiful. It's not super huge but it was comfortable to live in."
Russia loomed large over the Tkachuks and all Ukrainians before February 2022. Russia had invaded Crimea in southern Ukraine in February 2014.
"We knew something was going to happen because there was a big protest in Kyiv in the winter," Tkachuk recalled on the strife between Russia and Ukraine starting in 2014. "What I remember the most when I was 9 or 10 years old, there were shelters in the middle of the city and people came from the eastern regions to the western part of Ukraine, which was the safer part in Ukraine."
Roman even remembers drawing a picture of the Ukrainian soldiers in art class at school and sending it to them, including a reference picture that he still has.
Eight years later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine with a military assault in the eastern part of the country.
"They tried to bomb every single airport in every single city," Tkachuk said. "Everybody felt it. Especially the first week for sure. 2014 affected all of us, but not as much as in 2022."
The family made the decision to flee Ukraine, abandoning a new house that was close to being finished. Tatiana’s mother joined them; Ivan’s parents did not. On the fourth day of the war, the Tkachuks left for Poland.
Early in the four-month stay, they contacted Roman’s grandmother’s cousin, who lives in Winesburg, who helped facilitate the Tkachuks’ immigration to the U.S. via "humanitarian parole” and the Uniting for Ukraine program. On June 13, 2022, the Tkachuks arrived in the United States.
"At first, we were not planning to come here, but our relatives from here heard the awful news and they felt they had to do something," Tkachuk said. "We were really thankful for them."
The purpose sports can play
Today, Tkachuk can go into detail about his past using strong English. That was not the case when he arrived in Ohio.
"I could say an easy 'Hello' or 'Thank you,'" he said. "That's it."
What made the transition smoother and what helped ease Roman into his new surroundings and develop friendships was playing sports.
"I really saw in the first couple of months that he made a lot of good friends," Ivan said. "Everybody around him supported him."
Roman's go-to sport is basketball, his No. 1 passion from the get-go that he played in Ukraine. He played on a club team called OSHDSHOR, a network of specialized youth sports schools across Ukraine. His class took second place in Ukraine in 2022 before the war started.
Roman joined the basketball team as an eighth-grader at Hiland Middle School. Then, in his freshman year of high school, he joined the soccer team.
The only thing is, Roman never played soccer in Ukraine, even with it being the country’s most popular sport. He was a newbie, but playing with welcoming teammates allowed him to blend in.
"He really became friends with a lot of the guys on the team, which I think encouraged him to consider coming out for soccer," Hiland boys soccer head coach Scott Bodiker said.
"He's obviously a natural athlete," Hiland senior midfielder, and friend since eighth grade, Luke Bodiker said. "Summer workouts are mandatory but he'd always be there working on his foot skills. You notice that when we're playing."
That decision to latch onto another sport has been a rewarding one for Roman. His little sister, Zlata, is also playing at the middle school level now.
Through improvement and developing a better understanding of the game, Roman enjoyed his breakout season as a junior forward in 2025. He scored 10 goals, added 11 assists and made the Division V All-District Honorable Mention, while helping the Hawks win a district title. He's soaring even more in his senior season (18 goals, 9 assists) for 15-2 Hiland.
"When we got here, I knew Roman was going to play basketball, but when he started playing soccer, I was surprised but excited at the same time," Ivan said.
"All my friends played, so I started playing," said Roman, who cites Illia Zabarnyi of PSG and Mykhailo Mudryk of Tottenham as the two Ukrainian professional players he looks up to on the European soccer level. "I loved soccer my whole life. I just didn't play it. I was following the Premier League, La Liga and all the big leagues. I never played because I was always focused on basketball and I didn't have enough time to play another sport in Ukraine."
At this point, it's safe to wonder if Roman has become a better soccer player than basketball player.
"I believe it's kind of equal," Roman said. "I feel like I'm maybe better at soccer, but enjoy basketball just as much."
Persevering again
If fleeing their home country to escape war was one hardship, the Tkachuks experienced another that upended their lives once more.
On March 18, the family lost everything in a house fire and Roman had to learn the news at basketball practice as the Hiland boys varsity basketball team was preparing for the OHSAA Division VI state semifinals in Dayton over the weekend — in which the Hawks would eventually go on to win the state championship.
"I went home and it was gone. Nobody was home, so we don't know how it happened," he said. "It was the first time I realized everything around me was material. We can have everything one day and next day it all disappears."
A GoFundMe page raised over $61,000. Since the house fire, the Tkachuks have been renting a place from the same landlord that helped them find their old house and are currently looking for a new one.
What touched Roman the most was the support he received from his basketball teammates — the same type of camaraderie he had formed with his soccer team.
"I love all those guys on the team. We were one big happy family," he said. "They all supported me after the house fire. Everybody texted me and it meant a lot."
Coach Bodiker could relate to Roman's transition, having spent time abroad himself.
"When you're in a culture with a language that is unfamiliar, sports is kind of a universal language," he said. "I think sports gave him a real quick friendship group, which when you're new, let alone in a different country, making friends as a teenager is the first thing you need. I think sports helped him adapt to American culture. I think his friends on the basketball and soccer teams have been there through those tough times."
To get an idea of how the Tkachuks have ingratiated themselves into a new fabric of society, look no further than to their family-owned Ukrainian restaurant in downtown Berlin called Soloway Foods. Ivan and Tatiana run the restaurant, which opened on May 2, 2024. Ivan, who is the main cook of the many homemade Ukrainian dishes on the menu, likes to think of it as a way his family can leave their imprint in America.
"The reason is to represent the country and show people who we really are. Ukraine is a country with the history of 1,000 years and leaves a little of our footprint of Ukrainians opening a restaurant in Ohio," Ivan said.
For Roman, he'll keep Ukraine close to his heart when he's playing sports, whether basketball — and now soccer.
"I am blessed to have this opportunity," he said. "I do need to represent my country in the best way possible and show people we can be good at something. That means a lot to me."
jamessimpson@gannett.com
Twitter/X: @JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: From Ukraine to the U.S. | Hiland's Roman Tkachuk has encountered change, hardship