In an Ozarks alterations shop, Russians and Ukrainians lean on common bonds to avoid tension

Workers in a small Missouri alterations shop watch from afar as a humanitarian crisis unfolds in Ukraine, even though their home countries are on opposing sides of the conflict.
Inside an alterations shop on South Campbell Avenue in Springfield, Missouri, Ukrainian immigrant Andrey Vakhrushev is having tea with his staff and revving up the sewing machines ahead of another busy day.

As Russian forces continue their invasion of Ukraine, his brother is now in a war zone back home. Vakhrushev says he’s doing his best to keep in touch.

“He has 12 kids and they need to be fed,” he said. “Now it's a very bad situation. Just as soon as they hear sirens, they go to the shelter [for] five or 10 minutes or one hour sitting there scared, crying,” he said.

His family is in the Trokosy region in central Ukraine, he said.