By Patrick Johnson
masslive.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Like his 40 classmates, Aleksandr Tsikhotskiy has his hands full with the daily physical, mental and academic grind of the Springfield Police Training Academy.
Unlike his classmates, he’s also dealing with the stress that comes from having family members caught up in the Russian invasion of his native Ukraine.
Tsikhotskiy’s brother, sister-in-law and their three children are refugees, fleeing from their home in Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea some 300 miles south of Kyiv. They have made their way roughly 800 miles west to Poland.
His parents live in Springfield, but his father has flown to London and is making his way to Poland to help his brother and family.
Tsikhotskiy, 23, said that in a way the rigor of the academy is a great way to keep his mind off the war.
“In a sense, it is almost like I appreciate it,” he said.
“The physical aspect is a good release of the stress, and then the mental aspect is a good distraction from it all,” he said. “It’s kind of not on my mind as much at the academy.”
The Springfield police academy is a six-month training program described as intensive. Recruits learn the principles of the law and police policy and procedures, self-defense tactics, and use of firearms and “less-than-lethal” weapons. They are also drilled up and down on discipline. There is a classroom component, a physical fitness component, and a hands-on instructional component.
Fail to measure up or fall behind in any of it and you are out.
Recruits who wish to be successful are encouraged to eliminate all distractions in their lives in order to focus on their training. But in Tsikhotskiy’s case, that is not really possible.
“This is the first time we’ve had a recruit whose family is involved in hostile warfare in another country,” said Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood.
Tsikhotskiy is a native of Ukraine but moved to the United States with his parents when he was 3. His brother moved back to Ukraine years ago, got married and settled down in Odessa to raise a family.
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“My brother has always been very important to me. I’ve spent a lot of summers with him. I wouldn’t consider him distant by any means.”
He also has many cousins and close friends who live in Ukraine whose lives have been upended by the war.
His brother’s family has not been in the middle of the fighting, but they were close enough that they decided to flee, he said. There have been some air attacks on Odessa, but not to the degree of other cities like Kyiv. At the start of the invasion, Tsikhotskiy said his brother and his family could hear explosions in the distance and sought shelter in the basement.
“They live 20 or 30 minutes from the center of the city. So there was a lot of military driving through and nearby stuff,” he said.
Originally his brother was going to stay behind and watch the house, but he decided to leave with his family for Poland. He said it is his understanding that Ukraine law allows fathers of three young children to leave rather than to serve in the military.
Tsikhotskiy said his parents and his sister are in constant contact with him and trying to help out how they can. He said it was a relief that they were able to cross over into Poland in the last few days. This, however, led to new worries about how they would survive with nothing but what they could carry.
“With the economy in shambles, they are not able to help themselves,” Tsikhotskiy said.
To help them, his father booked a flight to London, and is heading to Poland to help support the family. “He’s planning to stay there long enough to take care of my brother and hopefully they will be able to move back home,” Tsikhotskiy said.
His father’s return flight is not scheduled for three months.
“My mom is the second part of this,” he said. “Because as much as I’m worried about (my brother), I’m worried about her.”
In the buildup to war and at the start of the invasion, his mother was nearly worried sick.
“Two weeks ago when everything was up in the air, and you didn’t know how bad it would be and what would happen, I was really worried about it affecting her heart condition,” he said. “So staff allowed me to have contact with her and have a means for her to call me if what she needs is very important.”
Ordinarily, recruits in the academy shut down their phones and lock them away at the start of the day. But in Tsikhotskiy’s case, the instructors made an exception. He is allowed to carry his phone and have it on with the understanding that if he gets a call, it will be an emergency.
Clapprood said the academy is designed to be stressful as a way of sorting out those who can do the job from those who can’t.
“It’s important for them not to miss a beat in their studies and their physical fitness,” she said.
But in Tsikhotskiy’s case, she said, staff felt it was best to support him as much as possible. There have been other instances where a recruit will suffer a tragedy during training, such as a death in the family, and instructors are supportive. But they’ve never had a situation like this before.
“All the instructors say he is definitely a good recruit and he’s going to be a great officer, so I wanted to let it be known to him that he has our full support,” Clapprood said.
Tsikhotskiy said he appreciates the support.
“I’ve had nothing but support from both the instructors and the students here,” he said. “I’ve had multiple students reach out. And every day I’ve had at least one person ask me how I’m doing, how my family is doing, and if they are OK.”
Tsikhotskiy said it has been difficult to watch the war unfold, and the footage has been difficult to watch. In addition to his brother’s family, he has many aunts, uncles and cousins living throughout Ukraine. He also has many friends from the summers he spent there.
“I have a lot of friends that I would almost consider as close as family that I personally check in on every couple of days,” he said.
He said he has spent time in Kyiv and is familiar enough to recognize places shown in news footage. “Everything seems very familiar,” he said.
He said in a way it is similar to how people who were familiar with New York felt seeing the World Trade Center collapse during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “It’s a different kind of a shock than just hearing something about ... a place you’ve never been to or don’t even know about.”
Tsikhotskiy said there is almost no one, in Ukraine or Russia, who wants this war.
“Russia clearly didn’t expect it to go on this long. They expected something quick and easy,” he said.
He hopes there is a peaceful solution soon. “I don’t want Ukraine to become Russia and I also don’t want this unnecessary war.”
He said he always wanted to be in law enforcement growing up, but members of this family talked him out of it. “When I got to college, I ended up majoring in criminal justice and made my way full circle back to policing.”
The academy class, with at present 41 members including 34 recruits destined for the Springfield police, is due to graduate in June.
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