JOHN YANG: Since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, about 6.5 million Ukrainians have left the country, including hundreds of thousands who've come to the United States.
One of them is ten year old Artem Fedorenko.
Just days after the war began, he lost part of his arm in a Russian bombing that killed his father and brother.
A Minnesota group that helps Ukrainians who've lost limbs brought Artem to America for a prosthetic arm.
And today, he and his mother Oksana, are rebuilding their lives in suburban Minneapolis.
This story comes to us from Minnesota Public Radio News.
INNA KARPENKO: Yeah, sure.
Okay, so this is our kitchen.
We like it.
Very nice.
Table for our big family.
Nice deck and big yard.
OKSANA SHPAKOVYCH: My name is Oksana.
I live Ukraine, Kyiv.
INNA KARPENKO: My name is Inna Karpenko.
We became big friendly family.
Here we are.
We have each other, and it's wonderful.
We are very grateful.
VERONIKA KRAVCHENKO: I have really good friends here, and everybody is so nice.
I don't know why, but I drew like rainbow.
I like to draw that smile.
My name is Nika and I am eight.
ARTEM FEDORENKO: Artem, nine years, almost 10.
VERONIKA KRAVCHENKO: He likes his class, teachers, food.
That is his first.
Yeah.
OKSANA SHPAKOVYCH: Oh, my son.
INNA KARPENKO: He's a good example for all of us.
How he can enjoy life and do everything he wants, even without his own arm.
It happened on February 26.
They were scared and they decided to run away from Kyiv to save their lives.
They thought it would be safer.
That was big mistake.
Russian soldiers came into her ex-husband's cabin.
He saw how he died.
She's very grateful that his father put his son life first than his own.
I will always feel this pain for him because it's better that happened to me then to him, because I had normal life and now he has different life.
YAKOV GRADINAR, Chief Medical Officer, Protez Foundation: We started to work with Artem.
He's quite a character.
He's very active, active person.
Right now we have 1,500 people on our list that wants to get prosthetics.
In Ukrainian, protez means prosthetics.
So we named it protest foundation.
Seeing people with lost limbs due to stupid war, that should never happen.
But when you put prosthetic on and person can start doing first steps, that makes my day.
WOMAN: What game would you like to play, Artem?
ARTEM FEDORENKO: Heads up.
Seven up.
WOMAN: All right.
He's very confident, likes the spotlight, Really does like the spotlight.
There will be some times when he's sharing and he might just go into the whole thing about how I miss my dad and but if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here right now.
Okay, Artem, favorite part of your day.
Tell us.
ARTEM FEDORENKO: Gym and soccer.
You play soccer now?
MAN: You can do that, right?
ARTEM FEDORENKO: Zip.
Okay, Fred.
