Gunter Pfau runs the Philadelphia-based company Stuzo, which employs about 100 workers in the Ukraine. He is working to move them to safe places. This photograph was taken at his home in Fleetwood, PA on Monday, February 28, 2022.When two pre-dawn blasts jolted Julia Gurelya awake at her home in Zhytomyr — an attack on a nearby Ukrainian airfield — she knew it was time to leave.
“All of them are safe,” said Pfau, who knows about Soviet dictatorships, having come to the U.S. as a refugee from Romania. “Half have temporarily relocated with their families. We’re working on the other half.” She’s still working, she said. It actually helps to work during at time of constant anxiety. She’s gained strength from seeing friends and neighbors help one another amid an expanding sense of national unity.
Pfau was drawn to Ukraine by its plethora of talented software engineers and specialists, and by the lower labor costs. About two-thirds of the company staff is in Ukraine, involved in all manner of technical development and support. For him, the fate of Ukraine feels personal, an effort of a totalitarian state to dominate a fledgling democracy.
Months before war erupted, Nazariy Ustiannyk, a Stuzo senior manager, moved from Kyiv, the capital, to the western resort town of Truskavets, known for its mineral waters.“More and more people keep coming,” Ustiannyk said. “There’s not enough rooms. We’re trying to help, find them a place to stay.”But, Ustiannyk said, the town is as far west as he intends to go.