For most people around Oxford, the war in Ukraine is half a world away. But for others, it is something held closely to the heart. This report contains three stories about people living right here in Oxford for whom Ukraine is not distant news: A daughter trying relentlessly to get her mother out of the city of Odesa, which has been shelled by the Russian army; A graduating senior in Miami University’s naval ROTC program who will soon be a commissioned officer on a ship headed to the Black Sea; and two Russian students studying here, worried about what American economic sanctions are doing to their families back home.