PHILADELPHIA — When Maryna Bondar and her husband knew they would be moving from Ukraine to the United States, the culmination of a years-long immigration process, they never expected that something they didn’t pack would prove to be the heaviest to carry: a sense of guilt.
By pure accident of timing, the couple were admitted into this country Feb. 23 — the day before Russia invaded their homeland, starting a war that has killed thousands of Ukrainian troops and civilians and destroyed parts of major cities.
That turn of fate delivered the couple to safety in Northeast Philadelphia. And trapped their parents, family members, friends, and coworkers in a war zone.
