Ohio Dominican University student Anastasia Holovchenko knows this much: her father is on the front lines somewhere in Ukraine, fighting for their homeland.
Since the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on Thursday, he has managed to send her and her mother, who remains in Ukraine, brief messages once a night, letting them know he is alive and seeing combat but revealing little else.
At times like these, a phone battery is a precious thing.
The lack of information on the personal front is excruciating for Holovchenko, as are the growing scenes of destruction in her country that she must view from half a world away.
So the honors student and computer science major did what she could here, helping to pull together a rally for Ukraine on Saturday at the Ohio Statehouse.
“I’m really overwhelmed to see so many people today,” she said.
Of the events of the past week, she said, “my heart is broken.”
“Ukraine is not Russia and will never be Russia,” she said.
About 200 central Ohioans joined her there, united not against the Russian people as a whole but the megalomaniac at the wheel of this war machine.
They stood in the bitter cold for more than hour, waving Ukrainian flags and holding aloft signs that demanded sanctions against Vladimir Putin.
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“If Russia stops fighting there will be no war,” one sign read. “If Ukraine stops fighting there will be no Ukraine.”
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They sang the Ukrainian national anthem, accompanied by honks of solidarity from passing motorists, and they called out, “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!
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They also shared stories of desperate attempts to reach loved ones in Ukraine, and of grandchildren, still in Ukraine, saying goodbye to their stateside grandmother before spending another night in a bomb shelter.
“I have friends and family there,” said Natalia Lebedin, a member of the Ukrainian Cultural Association of Ohio, the organization that sponsored the rally. “I watch on Facebook for their little green circles to see if they’re still OK.”
Paul Hill was adopted from Ukraine as a child and raised here.
He wished he knew more about his relatives there.
“I have no recollection of my homeland,” he said. “I hope that they are OK. I hope that they are standing and fighting.
“Ukraine is worth something.”
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“We should all stand together as a global community,” said Marianna Klochko, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University-Marion and president of the Ukrainian cultural association. “Everyone is connected.”
A poll conducted before Russia’s invasion found that 52% of Americans viewed the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a critical threat to U.S. vital interests, but another poll from last week showed that just 26% felt the U.S. should play a major role in the escalating war.
Sitting idle while a madman like Putin runs amok in Europe is dangerous and short-sighted, Klochko said, because he will not stop with Ukraine. She urged Americans to press for further sanctions and to consider helping organizations that will provide humanitarian aid and assist the flood of refugees already spilling into neighboring countries.
“Everyone can do something,” Klochko said.
On Friday, a small group of students at Ohio State raised more than $7,000 at a bake sale that took them only 24 hours to plan and carry out, she said.
“Don’t let Ukrainian sacrifice…don’t let it be for nothing,” Klochko said. “Ukrainians are us.”
tdecker@dispatch.com
@Theodore_Decker
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: War in Europe: Russia aggression won’t stop at Ukraine say protesters
