'Absolute luck' got this Kansas expat out of Kyiv while Russian troops charged into Ukraine

Mickey Cesar admits his escape plan from Kyiv, Ukraine, last month was a little ad hoc. But he didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would be insane enough to attempt to take the country by force.
Looking back on it now, Mickey Cesar wishes he had been a little better prepared last month to take flight from his home in Kyiv, Ukraine.

“My friends and I had had many discussions about the buildup, and we all heard the warnings coming from the American government that we should get out," he said. “Most of us saw it as bluster between Putin and the United States."

So, the Kansas expat decided to stay.

Cesar, who went to high school in Lawrence and graduated from the University of Kansas, had been living in Ukraine since 2011, where he taught English in the afternoons and evenings at the STUDY Academy Center in Kyiv.