KYIV - On May 29th, the birthday of the legendary Taiho Koki -- Ivan Boryshko, Russian troops once again launched a missile attack on the Kharkiv region, the area in Ukraine where the famous wrestler's father was born. The Russians are attempting to capture it just as they seized Shisuka, the yokozuna's hometown, in 1945. The story of this family, filled with both tragedy and resilience leading to triumph, is just one of the many invisible yet strong threads that connect the peoples of Ukraine and Japan, despite the eight thousand kilometers that separate them. Eight thousand kilometers -- and one common neighbor, harboring archaic ambitions of conquest.