Wrapped in bright blue and yellow flags with the shining gold facade of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church behind them, Ukrainian Chicagoans rallied Thursday against Russia’s attacks on their homeland.
Feelings among them ranged from anxiety and dread to numbness and heartbreak on a frantic day of trying to contact family members in Ukraine and following the dizzying updates online about the invasion.
“Ukrainians will fight. Ukrainians will resist. Ukrainians just need our support,” Pavlo Bandriwsky, of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in Illinois, said to rallygoers. “They will do what they need to do, because for Ukraine, this is existential battle.”
Bandriwsky and others at the rally in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood repeatedly called for the United States’ full support of Ukraine, including humanitarian aid and harsh sanctions against Russia.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, igniting the largest attack on European soil since World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ignored widespread condemnation of his actions, and threatened any interfering country with “consequences you have never seen.”
Many Ukrainians have attempted to flee the country, or have been forced to go underground to seek shelter. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian government have pleaded the international community for help.
The crowd of a couple hundred in Chicago was generally quiet and somber as they listened to speakers. But they broke out into forceful chants toward the end of the rally, calling out in Ukrainian, “Ukraine! Above all!” and a popular salute symbolizing free Ukraine: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!”
Before dispersing, protesters sang a subdued patriotic march: “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow.”
Oleina Prysiazh, 27, lingered after the event ended. She was visibly anxious. She said she hadn’t heard from her parents, who live in Ukraine, for at least five hours.
“I’m scared, but I don’t have any other choice,” Prysiazh said. “Like you just believe, and you pray that everything’s going to be all right.”
Prysiazh’s companion at the rally, 36-year-old Maria Ivanus, said she felt like she had to do something to feel a connection with her community.
“You go online, you lose your mind. You come here, you see people and you talk to someone, you feel a bit better. Maybe you can provide comfort to someone,” Ivanus said. “I just want to be with my people.”
Not all Ukrainians who are relatives of Chicagoans are trying to leave the embattled country, according to their loved ones. Some are planning to stay and defend their home, including some of Ivanus’ friends, she said.
Thursday’s protest was organized spontaneously in response to the attacks by Russia, Bandriwsky said. Organizers are planning a larger event Sunday near the same location, hoping to attract thousands of supporters, he said.
Many people with ties to Ukraine said they feel like the country is their home, even if they’ve never lived there.
“Just to watch our motherland being attacked like this is extremely, extremely painful,” said Danylo Melnyk, a leader with Plast Ukrainian Scouting, a youth organization in Chicago. “One small thing could escalate into an incredible amount of destruction.”
Dania Hrynewycz said her Ukrainian identity was “always in the background of everything” as she grew up in Chicago, from attending Ukrainian Saturday school, to being part of a Ukrainian dance ensemble. The 20-year-old Loyola University student said she was distracted in class all day Thursday, glued to the News app and feeling a sense of guilt at being thousands of miles away.
But she felt like she had an obligation to focus on her midterms, she said, because her grandparents immigrated to the United States for her to live out her full potential.
“They went through the trauma of leaving their homes … so that I could thrive, and so that my mother and my father and all other future generations that come after will thrive,” Hrynewycz said.
Mariana Semanyshyn, 21, attended Thursday’s rally after a sleepless night.
“I was awake ever since we received word from our family in Ukraine,” said Semanyshyn, a first-generation Ukrainian American. Family members reported hearing bombs and feeling their windows and floors shaking, but are trying not to panic, she said.
She and others expressed disbelief that the attacks had actually come, that no one had been able to turn Putin away from invasion.
Some Ukrainians in Chicago said they hoped U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration would take a stronger stance against Russia.
“It’s amazing how quickly our community can mobilize,” said Myron Wasiunec, a leader with the American Ukrainian Youth Association from Palatine. “And at the same time, it is mind-boggling how slowly our government has been to react to what was obviously about to happen. “
Biden on Thursday announced that the U.S. would impose severe economic sanctions against Russia, saying Putin “chose this war.”
“America stands up to bullies,” Biden tweeted on Thursday. “We stand up for freedom. That’s who we are.”
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich requested that prayers for Ukraine be added to all Masses throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday.
“Most of us know war in Europe from the stories of our parents and grandparents, from history portrayed in films and books,” Cupich tweeted. “This attack on a peaceful, sovereign nation is a sad reminder that the work of peace is never over.”
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv became a sister city to Chicago in 1991, the same year Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. About 200,000 people of Ukrainian descent live in Illinois, according to Chicago Sister Cities International.
Ukraine declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine; a written statement from the embassy urged U.S. citizens to refrain from travel to Ukraine and urged Americans already there to “depart immediately using commercial or other privately available ground transportation options.”
A separate security alert after the bombings advised Americans in Ukraine to shelter in place, with instructions on how to seek cover if a siren or explosion is heard.
“Further Russian military action can occur at any time without warning,” the alert said. “U.S. citizens throughout Ukraine are strongly encouraged to remain vigilant.”
The Associated Press contributed.
