At 5 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2022 — the day Russian forces launched a surprise attack on neighboring Ukraine — Nadia Yelizarova was fast asleep in the Kharkiv apartment she shared with her son, Mikhaylo “Misha” Yelizarov, and daughter, Anna Yelizarova.
“My colleague called me from work and said ‘wake up!’ And then my neighbor banged on the door and said, ‘please help me!’” Yelizarova recalled in Ukrainian, as Misha, now 18, translated into English. “We lived on the 8th floor and there was no electricity, so the elevator stopped working.”
Complicating matters, Misha has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and was already using a wheelchair.
“I remember this day so well,” Misha told Rare Disease Advisor (sister brand to DMD Companion) during CureDuchenne’s 2025 FUTURES conference. “My mom said the war had started, and I couldn’t believe it. My father carried me down the stairs. We got into the car, along with our dog.” They went to the home of a family friend about 10 minutes away.
But only five days later — after a Russian bomb obliterated a nearby house — the family fled again, this time to neighboring Moldova, where they stayed for two months. From there, a niece living in Richmond, Virginia, invited them to the United States. They eventually settled in Richmond and were given Temporary Protected Status.
Misha is among dozens of people with Duchenne who fled Ukraine with their families in the weeks and months after the war broke out and are now living in other countries.
Another is Danyil Yashchenko, 18, who before the war lived with his parents — Margaryta and Serhii Yashchenko — in the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi. The family has since relocated to Great Britain, where Danyil’s older sister, Alina Khmelnytska, heads the organization Duchenne Ukraine.
Danyil is currently treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is going to school in London.
“Despite the war, our organization is actively working, even though some Ukrainian families have scattered to different countries of the world,” said Margaryta Yashchenko via text. She estimated that 400 of the 500 or so boys and young men with DMD at the start of the war remain in Ukraine.
Misha is the only Ukrainian with Duchenne believed to have relocated to the U.S. since the war began. Others have moved to Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Misha first started showing symptoms at the age of 3, but it took four more years to learn what was wrong with him.
“Before that, he was like a normal child. He would walk, run and jump. But then he lost a lot of weight and started to fall down,” said Yelizarova. “We knew some clinics, but they weren’t very good. We finally got the diagnosis in 2014.”
Misha currently takes viltolarsen (Viltepso®), an injectable drug developed by Japan’s NS Pharma and approved in 2020 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the roughly 8% of Duchenne cases that are amenable to exon 53 skipping.
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Yaroslav Zarutskyi, 20, has been living in Warsaw, Poland, for the past five years. Originally from Kyiv, he was diagnosed with DMD at the age of 6 and has deletion of exons 48 to 50.
“Exondys 51 and Elevidys gene therapy are both suitable for me, but at the moment, neither Ukraine nor Poland provides these medications,” he said in a text message. “Both of these drugs are very expensive and we cannot afford to buy them.”
Zarutskyi has been involved with Duchenne Ukraine, and on Jul. 26, 2025, he’ll moderate an online discussion titled “A frank discussion about real life with Duchenne.” The webinar will be in both English and Ukrainian.
Debra Miller, CureDuchenne’s cofounder and CEO, said she’s grateful to the drug companies and private donors who made it possible for families like Misha’s to attend the Texas gathering.
“We’re so glad the Yelizarova family was able to attend this year’s Futures conference. They discovered it online and reached out to us — and thanks to the generosity of our donors, we were honored to support their travel to the conference,” Miller said. “We believe every family facing Duchenne deserves access to expert guidance. This family has overcome immense challenges, and we’re deeply grateful they found community and hope through Futures.”
Meanwhile, Misha said he enjoys going to high school in Richmond, improving his English, making friends and connecting with other teens who have Duchenne. But neither he nor his family show much interest in returning permanently to the country they fled, even if a peace treaty is eventually signed with Russia.
“We really want to go back to Ukraine someday,” he said, “but just to visit — not to live there.”
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