Dariia Bazylevych, her mother and two sisters, were killed in a Russian missile attack on the night of Sept. 4 in Lviv, Ukraine. The attack killed seven people in total. She is survived by her father, who is now in intensive care because of the attack.
Bazylevych, a second-year Cultural Studies student at the Ukrainian Catholic University, joined IU professor Sofiya Asher’s elementary Ukrainian language class through Zoom as often as her environment made possible.
Bazylevych lived in Kyiv, but volunteered along with other UCU students to help the IU class learn Ukrainian. The class met four times a week, but Asher asked the volunteers to come as often as they were able to.
Asher said sometimes students couldn’t join because of air strikes or other events happening in their hometown. She said Bazylevych joined over 40% of the class periods in her first of two semesters.
“There were weeks when Dariia joined every day,” Asher said.
Asher said, although she had no teaching experience, Bazylevych was incredibly patient and helped the students learn the proper grammar and slang of Ukrainian. Her classmates described her as encouraging and thoughtful.
“It’s just incredible to see someone who is still smiling despite everything that is going on in their home country,” said Nick Conrad, one of her IU classmates.
Bazylevych dreamed of contributing to the development of Ukraine. She wanted to share Ukrainian culture and to raise awareness for her country.
UCU published an article this month sharing some of Bazylevych’s dreams and aspirations. The article included letters that she had written to her scholarship donors each year.
“I am interested in the culture and history of my country, and in the future, I want to develop the culture of Ukraine and tell the whole world about it,” one letter read.
IU graduate student Nika Khomeriki was the first of Bazylevych’s classmates to find out about her death.
Khomeriki is originally from Georgia, which has been impacted by the war due to its proximity. Georgia is just diagonal of Ukraine, with only a small section of Russia separating the two. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and 20% remains under Russian military occupation.
Khomeriki said at home, many people write about Ukraine.
“One of my friends had posted about this family in Ukraine that was two daughters and a mother... Dariia was very young in the photo, and I could not recognize her,” Khomeriki said. “Then I immediately recognized her surname.”
Khomeriki reached out to Asher to confirm what he had seen.
Asher broke the news to her students who knew Bazylevych, sending an email to share the heartbreaking information — a message Nick Conrad was also afraid was coming.
“It’s another example of Ukraine losing its best people,” Conrad said. “I mean, Dariia was very bright, very encouraging and very positive all the time.”
Conrad was born in Kyiv and adopted by an American family when he was 15 months old. He volunteered in Poland and Ukraine in the past and is back in Poland after graduating from IU in May.
Keeping up with the news in Ukraine, Conrad said he saw a report on the messaging platform Telegram about the death of three young girls and a mother. He said when looking at the family picture, he couldn’t quite place it, but he knew he recognized the face of the young girl.
Asher’s email confirmed it for him.
Both Conrad and Asher spoke about the importance of the need for justice.
“After so long, it is easy to let the war feel far away and untouched from our lives,” Asher said. “However, it is moments like this that show it is omnipresent. It is everywhere. It touches everyone.”
Khomeriki said people follow the war on news and social media, but do not realize how close and large it really is.
"This is not just something happening across the sea. It is here in Bloomington. It is important we pay attention to it,” Asher said. “The delays of providing aid that was promised, the restrictions with which aid comes, all result in the death of 18-year-old students who spent many, many hours helping American students.”
VOA said Bazylevych touched the lives of many students she helped and helped them better understand the situations in which Ukrainians live. Aside from helping the students improve their Ukrainian, she shared her life, passions and dreams with them.
There was even a group of students who talked about meeting in Ukraine, with students like Conrad going to Poland after graduation.
“It is unbelievable that we will never be able to meet in person,” Asher said. “We feel like she is one of us.”
