Kostiantyn Mukhin and Eugenia Karkina didn’t want to leave Ukraine in 2022, three months after Russia launched a brutal, full-scale invasion of its neighbor, shocking the rest of the world.
Their hearts were torn. Fleeing meant leaving their parents behind in a war zone where they were awakened daily by gunfire and bombardment. But they also had their 5-year-old daughter to think about. They did it for Sofiia.
Today, the pair operates a thriving food truck business based in Arvada, Sunflower Ukrainian Foods. They come from a region in Ukraine known for prolific fields of sunflowers, so the name is a bittersweet reminder of home. “It’s like good memories,” Mukhin said, proudly showing a photo of a massive sunflower field on his phone. “When you drive around, they are everywhere.”
The beauty of that scene is all the more poignant given the ongoing tragedy of the war. Mukhin’s father died recently due to a lack of life-saving medical care.
The couple shared their story on a peaceful June morning in Olde Town Arvada, across the street from one of their regular food truck locations. On Sunday mornings, they set up at the Arvada Farmer’s Market. They’re also regulars at farmers markets in Golden, Boulder and Westminster. For food prep, they rent space in a commercial kitchen.
Mukhin works 70-80 hours a week, and Karkina helps. “She works a little bit less,” Mukhin said, “but she’s still with me a lot.”
The images they share from the Russian invasion are chilling.
“You can see the tank from your apartment window, the tank is coming on the street where you used to walk with your child,” Karkina said of those horrifying days in their hometown of Kherson, located in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea. “All day, they have those tanks, and people with guns are walking. We had to hide the kids in the underground. For the kids to stay 22 hours in the basement, with the threat that there’s going to be no food tomorrow, it had become very drastic, so we decided to flee.”
Mukhin began his career after university as a financial analyst, but soon felt a pull into the restaurant business. He started out making pizzas, delivering them by bicycle, and grew the business over eight years. They had just invested most of their savings into a new restaurant at the center of Kherson when war came. The invasion left them nearly broke.
During their first attempt to escape, they were in a long line of cars when it came under Russian attack, but they were able to get away safely and find a different route to neighboring Georgia. After three months there, they reached Arvada in July of 2022, aided by a U.S. Homeland Security program called Uniting for Ukraine, which was set up to provide Ukrainian refugees with a safe and legal way to enter the U.S. Mukhin went to work at a restaurant, washing dishes, while he learned to speak English.
Sunflower Ukrainian started out as a food tent in 2023, and Mukhin built his first trailer in 2024. They now have three food trucks, sometimes operating at three locations simultaneously.
They have an extensive menu that includes pork and cabbage dumplings, potato pancakes with chicken and cheese, pork belly stew, “home-style” sausage and meatballs, chicken Kyiv, and three vegan dishes. They also have branched out to include a frozen food take-home business with seven menu items, each serving three to four meals.
Sofiia, their daughter, is 10 years old now. Karkina is teaching her how to ride a bike.
“We love this community,” Karkina said. “We are so welcomed by so many people. When people say, ‘We understand you and how it feels to lose everything,’ that means a lot. People who support freedom, democracy, and independence, this means life to us. When we came, we were broke, we lost everything, but itap OK. We’re alive, our child is safe, thatap whatap most important.”
