Local Ukrainians Dare To Be Optimistic

The first Sunday of the war in Ukraine saw prayer services at New Haven’s Ukrainian churches attracting hundreds of patriotic parishioners and supportive political leaders, all determined to see Ukraine remain a free, independent nation.

Ukrainians greeted each other with ​“Heroyam Slava” — ​“Glory to the Ukrainian fighters.” Then they prayed, shared heart-rending stories of killed or endangered relatives, and found hope in the continuing fight against Russian invaders. 

At the Sunday service at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church on quiet residential Fowler Street on the Westville/Amity border, parishioners trickled in greeting each other somberly with ​“Slova isysy hrustyoo,” or ​“Glory to Jesus.”

Kateryna Bodnar was one of the earliest arrivals. Gracious but clearly wracked by worry, she said her father had died on Tuesday. She is still not sure of the circumstances of the death. Family members came from various locations in Eastern Ukraine to the funeral in the small western city of Kolomyia and now can’t leave.

Her sister-in-law’s husband went to the front, telling the family, ​“I live in this country, and I will defend it.”

Her brother remains in Kharkiv, awakened by ​“shelling in the night,” she said. She calls him constantly. ​“We hear something, see an explosion on the news, we call. ​‘Are you OK?’ ​‘We’re fine,’ he says. Every hour we do this.”

Bodnar said in the end she is optimistic about the outcome but that it would come at a big cost. ​“There will be a lot of losses.”

The view was shared by her fellow parishioner Zoriana Dyka, a 20-year Connecticut resident, who drove down from Bloomfield. Her family members live a two-hour drive south of Kyiv. A brother lives near one of the airports that the Russians blew up, she said. He’s 59 years old. He doesn’t plan to leave.

“We know God is on our side, our land, our children. Putin never realized that no one has ever told Ukrainians how to live. Ukrainians are strong and brave. We will fight for each house, each centimeter,” Dyka said.

Meanwhile, at the early-morning English language service at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church on George Street, Cynthia Rutt came in from Branford, she said, because she felt ​“a need to be with my people.”

An editorial director with relatives in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, she said she feels her heart and mind at war. On the one hand, she said, sending in U.S. or NATO troops on the ground to help is ​“out of the question. That would be another Vietnam.” But, she said, ​“the U.S. must keep up the pressure.”

Ukrainian-Americans from all over the area, with signs and flags, gathered after the service at St. Michael’s for an 11:30 a.m., post-prayer service press conference to be attended by Mayor Justin Elicker (who was with the congregation for the entire service) along with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep Rosa De Lauro, and Gov. Ned Lamont.

Among them was Olena Stanislavskyy, a member of the Ukrainian-American Club of Southport. She greeted her friend Larysa Czerepacha Persano, who was attending with her two sign-carrying kids Nicholas and Zoryana.

Others gathered round as they were waiting for the pols exchanging hugs and ​“Slava Okraini,” or ​“Glory to Ukraine,” to which the response was ​“heroyam slava.”

“If we don’t stop Putin now,” said Stanislavskyy, ​“Ukraine will not be enough.”

“We are born Ukrainian,” Stanislavskyy stated. ​“We can’t help but be optimistic.”

Inside the church, Myron Melnyk, who along with Carl Harvey had helped organize the event, shared that slowly growing feeling: ​“I was pessimistic, but they’ve been putting up a better than expected resistance, if they can only get more weapons.”

“What’s encouraging is the high morale in our fighting force,” Melnyk said.

As the crowd made their way from the sanctuary to the reception hall/gym to await the political figures, Bruce Marshall, associated with the church for three decades through his wife, showed this reporter a text his daughter received from a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman who was befriended by family members last year when she was a student in Connecticut: ​“Spending birthday in a bunker. If you want to give me a present, donate to the Ukrainian army. Details are here.”

“The human face of all this,” said Marshall, as the speeches began.

Blumenthal said to help keep up awareness he has invited Melnyk to be his guest at the upcoming State of the Union Address on Tuesday night.

Gov. Lamont, in a voice shaking with anger, echoed the call to boycott not just Russian vodka but Russian energy as well.

“You guys are really doing the pushing,” Lamont told the more than a hundred parishioners and activists who filled St. Michael’s hall. ​“We’re giving you support to push.”

U.S. Rep. DeLauro underlined that as of Sunday morning, Congress had already authorized $1 billion in aid to Ukraine. ​“And I commit to you, as chair of appropriations, we will be there to sustain Ukraine to make this fight,” she said.

She concluded quoting Ukraine President Vlodomir Zelensky: ​“I am here, the fight is here, the weapons are our truth. Glory to Ukraine.”

Then the Congresswoman added, ​“God bless Ukraine and God bless the United States of America.”

Mayor Elicker said New Haveners and Americans should be prepared for sacrifices, like paying higher prices, in supporting Ukraine. If Putin is not stopped, he said, echoing others, the creeping aggression would continue threatening democracy as a principle around the world.

He said he found it shocking that only 67 percent of Americans approve of sanctions, in a recent poll: ​“It should be 100 percent.”

The Ukrainian flag will be raised on the New Haven Green, he added.

Melnyk said those wanting to make a contribution of humanitarian aid could contact a range of organizations but he’s suggesting the well established Philadelphia-based The United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, at uuarc.org.