- Sarah and Sasha Pachev, Orem residents, are aiding Ukraine amid the crisis through humanitarian trips.
- Sasha was born in Ukraine and raised in Russia, the two met while living in Russia.
- They document their journey on YouTube, donating all proceeds to Ukrainian soldiers and families.
OREM — On Feb. 24, 2022, Sarah Pachev watched in disbelief as Russia launched a full-scale invasion in Ukraine.
"I was horrified that all of a sudden we have this World War II-style warfare that we had all agreed would never happen again," she said.
Sarah Pachev was born in America but spent her teenage years in Russia after her dad took a job there. As a young adult, she met Sasha Pachev, a Ukrainian-born man who was raised in Russia. The two now have 11 children they have raised in Orem, and have often been featured locally and nationally as the "Crocs running family" for running in Crocs sandals.
Even though she tries really hard to focus on the positive, Sarah said that watching what was happening in Ukraine was making that difficult. She said she didn't want the negativity to affect her ability to be a mother, so she decided to turn the news off.
"I felt like it wasn't good for my mental health as mom, and it was weighing me down," she said. "And then I had a very clear thought come into my mind that I believe was from God that said, 'How will you know what to pray for if you don't know what's going on?'
"In that moment, I came to the realization that all these things that are happening in the news, we can decide to turn off, but the people that are going through it can't. I do believe in the power of prayer, and so I kept paying attention."
Sasha was also paying attention to the crisis in his home countries, but as a Russian-raised immigrant from Ukraine, he didn't quite know what to think.
"I was raised in a Russian school with a Russian ideology, and it was the Soviet Union at the time," Sasha said. "I thought of Ukraine as being just another country with Soviet heritage that split off from the Soviet Union, and I didn't really see Russia and Ukraine as being too much different. ... But, when I came to the United States in 1993, I never had a desire to go back to Russia.
"Even when communism fell, I still felt like it wasn't enough," he continued. "I had hopes that things would clean up in a few years, but I just had this oppressive feeling and knew I needed to stay away from that environment even though I taught my children Russian."
Around the same time, the couple had sent one of their sons on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission to Ukraine. Sasha said that through some difficult conversations, he started to deconstruct what he was taught as a child.
"(My son) brought back some reminders of my Ukrainian heritage and the fact that (Russia and Ukraine) were two different countries with different paths," Sasha recalled. "It didn't really hit me hard until the invasion on February 24, 2022."
Reaching beyond home
The couple watched from afar and wanted to help but didn't quite know how. Sasha said that he wanted to understand what was going on in Ukraine, but felt like he wasn't able to due to a language barrier. So, he taught himself how to speak and read Ukrainian. He also started to donate to humanitarian efforts.
Sarah continued to pray for the people, and then one day, her husband asked if she'd like to go with him to Ukraine on a humanitarian trip.
"I just looked at him and said, 'I'm not leaving the kids. I'm not going into a war zone,'" she recalled. "Then God spoke to my heart again, saying, 'There are people there that you specifically can bring hope to because of who you are. You're not there for an adventure; you're just a mom who would bring somebody chicken noodle soup, and they need somebody just to be like that angel in their life.' I really felt that there were people there that needed to not be forgotten, and so I swallowed my fear."
So, in December of 2022, the couple left their kids for a time and traveled to Ukraine. Since that first trip, they've been there six times, and each time, they said, they've come back with a deep love for the people and an even deeper desire to help.
"We go there, and we meet soldiers, and we meet people and they tell us heartbreaking stories," Sarah said. "When you put a face to something, it makes it even more urgent in your mind."
One of those faces was one of a kindergarten teacher who spent a large portion of her day with her students in an underground bomb shelter, which was poorly ventilated.
"She would come back from the school, and she would tell me about her day and about how many times that she'd had to take the kids down to the bomb shelter," Sarah said. "This was eating at my heart."
Sharing their journey with the world
The Pachevs have spent the little time and extra money they have to help people in Ukraine and decided that they wanted to give a face and a voice to the people as well by sharing their journey.
Sarah started a YouTube channel sharing that journey as a mother of 11 who balances home and family life with traveling to Ukraine. She said she hopes to bring awareness to things that largely affect the most vulnerable — children. She also said that all funds generated through the channel will be donated to Ukrainian soldiers, children and families in need.
"In Ukraine, there are underground facilities, but enough not for everyone, not for every school kid," Sasha said. "The need is infinite. "The question what drives me is just knowing that I can help and that a little bit of effort that I put in makes a difference.
"We are known as the Crocs running family, but there is so much more to us," he continued. "We help the people of Ukraine."
