“Why did we Koreans come to Ukraine? To work in the countryside! The conditions here are good for growing vegetables,” said Olena Pak, a resident of the rural Shevchenkove settlement in southern Ukraine.
Her parents, like those of her husband Oleh, also an ethnic Korean, came to Ukraine from Uzbekistan in the 1970s, when both countries were part of the Soviet Union. “They leased land from the state, which they worked on, while making plans. There were many Korean farm workers,” recalled Oleh Pak.
The Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukrainey, has been home to one of the largest settlements of ethnic Koreans in Ukraine for over half a century now. Most moved there in the 1950s and 1960s from Central Asia, to which they had been deported in the 1930s from the Russian Far East, where many had fled to at the beginning of the 20th century to escape the Japanese occupation of Korea.
‘We don’t want to leave, we feel at home here’
Olena and Oleh Pak have Ukrainian first names and passports, but they also speak Korean very well. They said their families always spoke the language at home and upheld various traditions, such as making kimchi, a Korean dish of preserved vegetables with salt and spices.
“It’s passed down from generation to generation, without kimchi we wouldn’t have survived a single winter,” said Olena Pak.
Like their ancestors, the Paks are farmers. They expanded their business in the 2000s and were soon growing vegetables in three greenhouses. But they almost lost everything after Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Half of the community was under Russian occupation for nine months, while the other half was in the line of fire. Today, only one greenhouse remains, in which the family continues to grow vegetables and herbs.
Olena Pak volunteers in her free time, and every day she goes to the local cultural center to weave camouflage nets for the Ukrainian army. “We don’t want to leave, we feel at home here. This is our home and our country,” she said.
To South Korea and back to Ukraine
But many homes have been destroyed, and much of the land is now contaminated by land mines. About a third of the families of ethnic Korean descent have left the settlement. Some families went to South Korea as part of voluntary programs.
A few have since returned, including the Kogai family, which was evacuated to Seoul, where 12-year-old Ksenia attended school and began to learn the language. However, like her mother, she did not want to stay in South Korea. “I wanted to go back because I realize that this is our home, and I don’t want to leave,” she said.
The Kogais’ home was destroyed by bombs in 2022, so they are currently living in a garden house. As per tradition, their pine tree will remain in the house until spring. They always celebrate the Korean New Year at the end of January, just as they were taught by their ancestors.
Ksenia’s mother, Alyona, was born in the Mykolaiv region. Her father was Korean, and her mother a local Ukrainian woman; they got married in 1975. At the time, Alyona told DW, Koreans were still rather unusual so many people came from different villages to see the groom.
“I went to school here and always told all my classmates that I would never marry a Korean. But fate had other plans,” she said. She and her husband Leonid say such marriages are commonplace today.
Never would the Kogais have imagined that a member of the family would join the army. But in 2022, Alyona’s brother, Serhiy, joined the Territorial Defense Forces. He is currently fighting for the Ukrainian army on the front in Russia’s Kursk region.
Other Koreans are serving on the Russian side, but they come from North Korea — a fact that has outraged Alyona Kogai and her family. “They also come from Asia, but they are fundamentally different from South Koreans, as if they were zombies,” she said.
Many young people have left
Some ethnic Koreans from Shevchenkove joined the Ukrainian partisans during the Russian occupation. Community head Oleh Pylypenko said they actively supported the Ukrainian armed forces in the first months after the Russian invasion of 2022.
Oleksandr Hvan, whose home was converted into a hospital for Ukrainian military doctors, was among them. A bunker was also built in his yard.
Today, there is little left of his farm, he told DW sadly — but he plans to stay anyway. “I could escape somewhere, but I want to keep my property here. I came here after doing my military service in what was the Soviet Union. I built a life for myself and started a family,” he said.
Most of the ethnic Koreans in the region describe themselves as Ukrainians of Korean descent, as does the governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaliy Kim.
The younger generation speaks fluent Ukrainian, as confirmed by the teachers at the local school, which is attended by children with Korean surnames such as Zoi, Li, Kim or Hagai.
One of the teachers, Lilya Kusevich, said many of the ethnic Koreans have very good grades in Ukrainian language class. ” Elizaveta Zoi achieved the maximum number of points in the exam, for example. They are very hard-working children,” she said.
A fifth of the pupils in Shevchenkove are ethnic Koreans. Since Russian attacks damaged the school, learning has been restricted to online classes. Some of the pupils are living in other cities or abroad.
Even though many young people have left, the ethnic Koreans in Shevchenkove hope one day they will be able to rebuild their homes and revitalize the community.
This article was originally written in Ukrainian.
