‘We’re not going to back down’: As threat of Russian invasion looms, local Ukrainians remain resilient
As warnings of a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine continue to grow louder and more urgent, local Ukrainians and those with ties to the country are on edge as they watch from afar and tensions soar.
Hundreds gathered at two Ukrainian churches in Jamaica Plain Sunday morning to stand together in the face of the conflict and decry Russia’s positioning of significant combat forces on the country’s northern, eastern, and southern borders.
Some talked about fears for relatives and friends who remain in the country; others struck a resilient tone, saying Ukraine should hold its ground and not bend to pressure from Russia.
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“Ukrainian people are very special; they’re not going to back down,” said Julian D’Andre, a Quincy resident who lived in Ukraine for 19 years before moving to the United States. “That resilience is built into our blood.”
The growing threat of invasion drew D’Andre, whose mother is in Kyiv, to Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, where around 100 congregants knelt in silence and prayed Sunday morning as hymns echoed off the church’s stained-glass windows. The Ukrainian people have been ensnared in a tense relationship with Russia for years, and D’Andre said that although Russia’s arming of its border has made him worry, he does not yet feel the need to panic.
“We’re cautious; we’re nervous,” said D’Andre. “It’s something that I’m thinking about constantly. But at the same time, this is something we’ve been dealing with, really for 30 years, over our independence.”
The United States and some of its allies warned over the past week that they believe President Vladimir Putin of Russia has decided to invade Ukraine and that an attack could come soon. Moscow has repeatedly denied it plans to do so and has dismissed the US claims as propaganda and “hysteria.”
Russia has massed as many as 190,000 personnel in and around Ukraine, the United States estimates, including in Belarus, on the Russian-Ukrainian border, in occupied Crimea, and at sea.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine called Saturday on Putin to choose a place where the two leaders could meet to try to resolve the crisis and on Sunday appealed for a cease-fire on Twitter.
And Vice President Kamala Harris warned of the potential for war in Europe, should Russia invade Ukraine. The United States, along with many European countries, has threatened immediate, harsh sanctions if it does.
Around the world, Ukrainians and supporters of the country have held “Stand With Ukraine” events in recent days.
In Boston on Sunday, following the church services, dozens of cars — bedecked in blue-and-yellow flags and signs reading “Stop Putin’s War” and “Say no to Putin” — formed a motorcade through the streets, drawing beeps and cheers of support from passersby.
Among the drivers was Markian Dobczansky, a historian of Ukraine, Russia, and the Soviet Union, whose grandparents are from Ukraine.
“I have friends and colleagues and people that I care about there,” said Dobczansky. “And now Russia has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops on the border. That’s really dangerous and, frankly, frightening.”
Katyrina Romanuik, 82, listened carefully to the words and songs of the Ukrainian priest who led the morning memorial service at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church.
As she finished a silent prayer, she quietly traced the symbol of a cross on her chest. Romanuik, her daughter Olga Popovich said, has eight children, two of whom are in Ukraine.
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“She is very afraid for her children,” said Popovich. “Every Sunday we come here and pray for our family and for this awful war to end. Today is especially hard.”
The day’s events culminated in a gathering of some 300 people at a park in The Fens, where chants in the Ukrainian language filled the air and dozens of the country’s flags whipped in the wind.
Surrounded by the park’s World War II memorial, a grim reminder of the human toll of war, demonstrators railed against Putin, saying his latest actions are a deliberate attempt to weaken the Ukrainian resolve and stir its forces into attacking first.
The United States and many European countries have charged for months that Russia is trying to create pretexts to invade.
“This is an attempt to target Ukrainian people, Ukrainian society, and Ukrainian sovereignty and independence,” said Anton Khlebas, an organizer with the Ukrainian Cultural Center of New England, of Russia’s increased presence at the border. “This is an attempt to weaken the resolve of the Ukrainian forces, to sow doubt in the strength of the Ukrainian allies’ support, and to cast Ukrainian society into fear, hopelessness, panic, and despair.”
Svitlana Rozghon, a Quincy resident who moved to the United States from Ukraine in 2014, has watched anxiously as tensions have risen in the region. Nearly her entire family, including her parents and siblings, live in Dnipro, a Ukrainian city where she said many soldiers who get injured on the front lines are taken for treatment.
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