People of Ukraine living in the United States of America woke up to horrible news on Thursday as their wildest fear became reality – Russia invaded Ukraine!
For most of the Ukrainians, it was a situation that they needed to counter while being thousands of kilometers away thinking about their families, friends, and loved ones back at home.
The early hours of Thursday were spent trying to contact loved ones back in Ukraine as the first troops of Russia crossed into the country.
As Russia attacked the country by bombing the major cities of Ukraine, people were compelled to hide in subway stations, bomb shelters, or else flee their homes trying to find refuge in neighboring countries like Poland.
A Ukrainian national living in America – Eugene Luciw who is also the director of external relations at the Ukrainian American sports center said that the community knew something was churning up.
“They’ve been transfixed with the buzz of war for eight years,” “Ukrainian’s army is the second strongest army in Europe. It will resist. However, the Russians will persist. When those two armies meet, there is going to be an explosion, and it’s going to be on the level of World War II,” feared Luciw.
Another Ukrainian Roman, who came to America in 2001 for a better future is hopeful that the Ukrainian troops would not surrender but he also says that the worst of the worst can be expected from President Putin.
“The people will not surrender, period. Even if he takes his army there, he will have to kill 43 million people. As the night comes, the devil comes out, so we better be prepared for this night to be very hot,” said Roman.
“Please pray for us, help us. We shall overcome, we just need everybody’s help. Please don’t leave Ukraine,” cried a Ukrainian woman who wanted to stay anonymous.
Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered at the Times Square in New York to demonstrate in the favor of Ukraine. People from all corners of life and different nationalities took part in the protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Times Square.
The majority of Ukrainians are hoping that the country will show up most resilience against the military invasion and will come out of this tough time triumphant.
“The Ukrainians are fighting back,” Olexy said. “Ukrainians are not going to give up the land easily. This is going to be a very long-drawn-out war… Ukrainians fought long and hard to win their independence – or regain their independence, should I say – 30 years ago years, and they’re not going to give it up easily.”
