Insider: Zdor keeps connected to Ukraine

Grand Canyon was returning from a victory in Chicago a week ago when the flight passengers' phones sounded like pinball machines hitting tilt as news notifications landed simultaneously after the plane.

Russia had begun an invasion of Ukraine, the home country of Lopes junior power forward Dima Zdor.

Zdor called his uncle and asked, "What's going on?"

"It's a full-on war out here," his uncle, Alexander, told Zdor with Russian military tanks in sight of his apartment.

Nothing in the past week has eased Zdor's angst about the safety of his country and his family, especially now that his father, Vladmir, is headed toward the war zone to join Zdor's uncle and other armed civilians who are defending Ukraine.

While his mother and sister are safe in Crimea, Zdor makes daily phone calls to his uncle and his grandmother, Galina, because they live in Chernihiv, a targeted northern Ukraine city of nearly 300,000 people. Chernihiv neighborhoods were shelled from multiple directions in recent days and the downtown was hit by airstrikes, as the Ukrainian death toll reached 2,000 citizens.

"They're going in and out from their apartments to a place where you're supposed to go when everything gets lit up or bombed," said Zdor, one of seven Ukraine-born Division I men's basketball players. "Whenever they hear sirens, they have to go to the bunker because, in 10 minutes, there'll be an attack."

With an estimated 1 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the nation, Zdor's grandmother is among the many Ukrainians who have stayed put and made Molotov cocktails, homemade explosives in glass bottles, to lob at Russian war machinery or troops.

"I ask my uncle, 'How was it today? Who did you get?' " Zdor said of his daily calls to him. "They're doing it for the country, so it makes me more proud than scared. As long as they're not scared, I'm not scared. It's just a matter of mindset."

Zdor's life already was changed once by the Russian takeover of Crimea in 2014. He grew up in Yalta until he went to Lithuania at age 13 for basketball. He returned home for the summer before moving to the U.S. for a high school basketball opportunity Dima Zdor and family

y.

"I was driving home with my dad and we see 600, 800 pieces of heavy equipment going down the road to block our district," Zdor said of 2014. "They just rolled in and said you're either on the side of Russia or you're going to leave. We weren't ready to fight at all then."

This time, Zdor is watching with pride as his native country fights back behind a president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who he considers a role model. It still can feel helpless to watch households and buildings destroyed, his people killed or wounded and Russia disseminating misinformation to sway Ukrainians.

"It's like somebody is trying to rob your house," Zdor said. "You're not going to be cool with it. I see so many videos of civilians saying, 'What are you doing here?' to soldiers and they say 'We came to free you ' and they say 'We are free.' "

At GCU, Zdor is supported by a coaching staff and team, just as his faith has grown at just the time that he has needed it most. He also has the embrace of a community, where a pregame prayer asked for protection over Ukraine and Havocs signs that read "We stand with Ukraine" and "We love Dima."

Dima Zdor

"It's really difficult to have a player going through that," Lopes head coach Bryce Drew said. "I go home late at night from work and I turn on the news to see what's going on because it's morning over in Ukraine. It's crushing just to hear what's going on and knowing that Dima's here and his family's over there going through everything that we're seeing on TV. He's been a really strong young man through this."

School and basketball have been a welcome distraction at times for Zdor, who is helping the Lopes to a 20-7 record entering the final week of the regular season. He is surrounded by teammates throughout each day, whether it be for practice, video study, weight training, meals or team chapel.

"It's a good stress relief from all the news so you can just come in, hoop, get some shots and talk to your teammates," Zdor said. "There are good vibes in here. But once you leave, it's more stressful because I'm always trying to keep an eye on social media."

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dima Zdor

Related Videos