(NewsNation Now) — Across the United States, Ukrainians living here are outraged at what’s going on in their home country.
NewsNation’s Paul Gerke has been speaking with some of them in New York over the last few weeks and their main desire, echoed by groups all across, the country, is just to be heard. Over and over again, they have stories of endless oppression and fear. One man told Gerke yesterday he hopes this is the “last war.”
On Thursday, with Russian artillery thundering in the suburbs of Kyiv, Russian missiles falling all over the country and 13 brave Ukrainian border guards on a small island in the Black Sea giving the Russian Navy one final profane message of denial before being wiped from existence, the American people gave center stage to Ukrainians around the U.S.
At a rally at the White House, the crowd shouted “Stand with Ukraine!” while around Washington, D.C. could be seen “U.S. Stands With Ukraine” posters.
Across the Midwest, drivers honked their horns in shows of support for Ukrainians and their sympathizers rallying in support, standing in bitter cold wind holding the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and showing a poster asking in stark letters: “Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine … Who’s next?”
Even deep in the heart of Texas, where more oil and natural gas will need to be produced to make up for what’s cut off from Russia, people gathered deep into the night chanting “Ukraine is free! Ukraine is free!”
Back in New York City, home of a sizable Ukrainian population, the protests against Russia’s aggression began at noon and kept growing as the day wore on and more reports of death and destruction came in. The protests moved from Times Square to the Russian mission on the Upper East Side, carrying the message that Russian aggression must not be allowed to stand unchecked.
NewsNation affiliate WPIX interviewed one woman who said, “Everyone is scared, everyone is in shock and we’re really hurt.” Even people from other parts of the former Soviet Union joined in the rally, hoping to send a message of unity in opposition to Vladimir Putin’s expansionist tactics. One man saying he was from Russia said, “The Russian people don’t want war. Only Putin wants war. Only the government wants one.”
On the other side of the country, in Los Angeles, protesters gathered in the Westwood area, including Ukrainian Americans terrified for their friends and family overseas. “I was really in shock and I had a panic attack because I cannot realize that this can happen in my native city,” said one of those at the gathering.
In Colorado, hundreds stood behind a single message: Stop Putin. They were echoed in cities large and small across the country as Ukrainians and those who sympathize with them and oppose Russia’s aggression gathered to protest and offer support.
One of the anti-war demonstrators in Times Square put in beautifully, according to Gerke: “Today, I think everybody is Ukrainian.”