JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sergei Orgunov sits at the same kitchen table as he did one year ago to the day Russia attacked his home country. And still, his eyes fill up with tears.
"It's unbelievable," he says. "It's so painful. So painful."
At the table, he turns on Ukrainian TV on his phone and listens in his native language.
Now, fluent in three languages, he tells us in English what worries him the most.
"I worry about how many more people will be killed," he says. He explains that friends - moms and dads - whose sons on the front line have been killed.
Orgunov was married in Ukraine and had his boys there.
He says hours after the Russians invaded, news reports from Ukraine spelled out a bleak picture.
Reports predicted Ukraine would be crushed in three days under Putin's attacks.
Now, Ukraine still stands.
"I'm amazed by Ukraine," Orgunov says. He believes the Ukrainians will eventually win the war.
But still, day and night, he checks his phone and worries about his relatives in Kiev. So far, his extended family in the Kiev region is okay, he says.
"Thank God, they're safe and well," he says, but they live their lives going in and out of bomb shelters during the day and night.
So how does he cope with the constant anxiety? He's a professional painter.
He paints incredibly realistic oils of animals, birds, seascapes and landscapes.
He says, while he paints, he prays for Ukraine.
He has strong faith. Painting and praying.
He says, "That's all we can do. That's all we can do."
If you'd like to see the paintings Orgunov creates, you can visit his website.
