Members of Metro Detroit’s Ukrainian community say they’re horrified by the Russian invasion of that country, and begged the world to help stop it.
Some members of that community and their allies gathered at Saint Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Warren for a rally Thursday evening.
Among them was Max Musiyenko. He came to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1998, when he was 10 years old.
Musiyenko said the Ukrainians desperately need better weapons. “The Ukrainians will do their own fighting, they don’t need anybody to fight for them,” he said. “But they need the objects to fight with. It’s kind of hard to go against an army with nuclear warheads with sticks. It just doesn’t happen.”
Oksana Zozuliak is from Kiev, and her family still lives there. She said they’re safe so far, but “I cried all morning talking to them,” she said.
Zozuliak said she came to the rally because instead of feeling helpless, “I just wanted to boom around the whole universe and just everybody to know that this is not right,” she said. “That something needs to be done on a global scale.”
Zozuliak said that at this point, her biggest hope is that resistance from within Russia will help turn the tide against Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “If they come out in huge groups, they can reach the goal they want, and the whole world wants, which is peace,” she said.
Ukrainian community leaders are organizing medical and humanitarian support campaigns, and urged people to donate. They also encouraged them to contact U.S. government representatives and urge them to support Ukraine.
