BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are only seven Division I men's college basketball players in the United States who were born in Ukraine.
One of them plays for Canisius College in Buffalo.
"I'm trying to keep my mindset as positive as I can, even though it's difficult," said George Maslennikov, a 6-foot-10 forward for the Golden Griffins, who grew up in the port city Odessa, after his family fled his birthplace in Crimea due to a previous Russian incursion.
His father is a sailor who was out to sea when the Russians attacked Ukraine last week, but his mother is still there.
During a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Maslennikov said he had spoken to her that morning, and that she believed, with Russian ships approaching the harbor, that Odessa would soon be under siege.
"There are a lot people leaving, but my mom can't go anywhere because she is on her own, and there's a lot of people she knows, and family members who moved in from Crimea, and she is taking care of them," Maslennikov said.
While his heart is filled with worry, it is filled also with pride for his countrymen who are fighting back.
"It just takes a lot of courage to do things like that, and having a country as small as ours to fight against Russians. Even knowing I am so far from home, I'm still trying to call my friends over there right now and keep their spirits up, because I know you can't beat a man if he is mentally strong, and I feel like this is the main reason why our country is standing up right now, because we are very mentally strong people," he said.
Maslennikov came to the United States as a teenager in 2015 to play prep basketball in Georgia before coming to Canisius, where he is in his senior season.
Despite living in the United States for seven years, he said that due to his age, if he were to go back to Ukraine to aid in the struggle, he would be conscripted into the military.
"I know I'm not a soldier or combat-ready guy, but I know I could have tried to help as much as I can the people that are actually serving the country and trying to help us out," he said.
As a child in Odessa, Maslennikov witnessed violent conflict between pro Russian and pro Ukrainian civilians.
"I was in the middle of it. I remember it like was yesterday," he said.
But he described it as more of a civil war, a far cry from an outright invasion by a superpower.
"It was something that I never thought was going to happen," he said.