Kyiv, Ukraine – Lyubov, a young Ukrainian woman living in North Carolina, says she was not surprised by the killing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a light-rail train in the same state on August 22.

“No matter how horrible it sounds, [the stabbing] was yet another confirmation of my concerns,” said Lyubov, a 22-year-old who lives with her American husband, referring to an uptick in violence.

Government-collected data shows that domestic violence-related homicides of women in North Carolina rose by almost 15 percent last year in comparison with 2023, while the general crime rate fell by 2.3 percent.

Luybov also noted the silence from Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even after the killing became a front-line issue

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