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Mila Kunis, born Milena Markovna Kunis, is a proud Ukrainian, originally from Chernivtsi. Her Jewish family fled Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, when she was only seven years old in 1991, right before her fall.
Her father Mark was a mechanical engineer in Ukraine and her mother Elvira was a physics teacher.
She previously cited anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union as one of the reasons her family fled the country. In 2011, the successful actress told the Daily Telegraph about her early childhood.
Mila Kunis, born Milena Markovna Kunis, is a proud Ukrainian, originally from Chernivtsi.
“My whole family survived the Holocaust. My grandparents died and few survived,” she said.
MILA KUNIS, “PROUD UKRAINE”, AND HUSBAND ASHTON KUTCHER LAUNCH MAINTENANCE COLLECTION FOR THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
“After the Holocaust, it was not allowed to be religious in Russia. So my parents raised me to know that I am Jewish. You know who you are inside. When I was in school, you still saw anti-Semitic signs.”
“One of my friends who grew up in Russia was in the second grade. One day she came home in tears. Her mother asked why, and she said that there was a swastika on the back of her seat. I want you,” Kunis added.
Her Jewish family fled Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, when she was only seven years old in 1991, right before her fall. (Reuters, file)
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In an interview with Glamor magazine in 2016, Kunis detailed the struggle her parents endured to give herself and her brother Michael, now 46, a new life.
“My parents went through hell and came back. They came to America with suitcases, a family of seven and $250 and that was it,” she said in an interview.
“My parents worked full time for years and went to college full time. They went to night school to learn English. My mom started at Thrifty in Culver City as a box maker. English; then she became a cashier. My father worked – f** if I know – seven jobs? He was painting the house. He delivered toilets. He drove a taxi, delivered pizza.”
Mila Kunis (Reuters, file)
“Everything he could do, he did. After all, my dad owned a cab and my mom worked her way up to the manager of Rite-Aid; they bought a car and an apartment. But growing up in poverty, I never missed anything.” My parents have done a wonderful job of not making me feel like I’m inferior to other kids.”
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Kunis also spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 2008 to share how she was affected by immigration to the United States at such a young age.
“It was very communist and my parents wanted a future for me and my brother, so they just dropped everything,” Kunis told the publication.
The Kunis family packed up their belongings and moved to Los Angeles in search of a better life.
Kunis said she adapted “quite quickly and quite well”.
However, Kunis admitted that she struggled to find a way to fit into 2nd grade.
“I cried every day,” she admitted. “I didn’t understand people. I didn’t understand the language.”
In 2014, the Black Swan actress said that immigrating to America “was a lot harder for my 13-year-old brother, a lot harder for my parents.”
Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, 44, recently pledged to donate up to $3 million to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees. (Miikka Scaffari/Getty Images)
During an interview with Star-Ledger, the reporter tried to find out what Kunis thought about her home country – at that time Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean region of Ukraine. But Kunis noted that she was a child when her family left.
“Just because I lived there until I was 7 doesn’t mean I identify with Ukraine,” she said. Kunis, as mentioned in a recent social media video, said she “always considered herself an American,” however, during the Russo-Ukrainian War, Kunis stressed that she could not be “more proud to be Ukrainian” and proudly defends the country against Russian invasion.
Last week, That ’70s star and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, 44, pledged up to $3 million in donations to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
In a video Kutcher shared with his Instagram followers on Thursday, Kunis began the video by saying, “I was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine in 1983. I came to America in 1991. I have always considered myself an American, a proud American, I love everything this country has done for me and my family.”
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In a video Kutcher shared with his Instagram followers on Thursday, Kunis began the video by saying that she is “a proud American” but that she “has never been so proud to be Ukrainian.” (Getty images)
“But today I am prouder than ever that I am Ukrainian,” Kunis concluded.
“And I have never been so proud to have married a Ukrainian,” Kutcher added.
“The events that unfolded in Ukraine are devastating. There is no place in this world for such an unfair attack on humanity,” the Bad Moms actress added.
“The events that unfolded in Ukraine are devastating. There is no place in this world for such an unjust attack on humanity,” the Bad Moms actress added in a statement. (ap, file)
The couple then pledged to donate $3 million to help through GoFundMe. This will benefit Flexport.org and Airbnb.org, two organizations that are active on the ground and provide immediate assistance to Ukrainians.
“While we are witnessing the courage of the inhabitants of the country in which she was born, we are also witnessing the needs of those who chose safety. “We need refugees and humanitarian aid in the area. The main problem now is logistics. We need to get housing, and we need to get supplies and resources to the area,” Kutcher said.
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed that 406 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 24 invasion. cornered accurate reports and the numbers are actually higher.
The attack prompted 1.7 million Ukrainians to leave the country.
Stephanie Pagones and Melissa Roberto of Fox News contributed to this report.