Keeping hope alive: Christina Logvynyuk, Olekseii Atnoniuk, Myron Melnyk, and Carl Harvey at WNHH FM.
New Haven hasn’t forgotten Ukraine.
A year after Russia invaded the nation, the Elm City continues shipping humanitarian supplies and maintaining awareness through public events, including a series planned to mark Friday’s one-year anniversary.
Myron Melnyk, a leader of the Ukrainian-American community in town through St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church on George Street, has served as a public face of those efforts and a conduit to political leaders. He said he’s not surprised that people here have maintained interest and support for Ukraine rather than allowing their attention to wander.
“I think in New Haven and in the entire Untied States, there’s a deep rooted sense of helping and cheering for the underdog. Especially if the underdog is fighting a brutal neighbor who invaded and is trying to destroy it. There’s a strong sense of preserving democracy and allowing people to determine their own fate rather than being overrun by more powerful neighbors and countries,” Melynk said during a conversation Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“They see what’s going on in Ukraine on the news. They read about it. They talk to people about it. So that message resonates.”
That said, Melynk warned that a protracted war looms in the year ahead, with Russia benefitting the longer it drags on. He and other Ukrainian-American guests on the program urged Americans to support shipping more weapons, more quickly, able to reach longer distances.
New Haveners donated $5.5 million worth of medical equipment and humanitarian aid that was shipped to Ukraine over the past 12 months, according to Carl Harvey, who coordinates those efforts through the Ukrainian American Veterans Post 33. Supplies have included wheelchairs, vehicles, defibrillators, walkers, commodes, and hospital beds. The efforts continue. (Contact him through his Carl R. Harvey Facebook page to learn about how to contribute.)
Local anniversary events include a memorial prayer service scheduled to begin at St. Michael (569 George St.) Friday at 6 p.m.; a 3 p.m. Friday vigil on Yale’s Cross Campus Friday at 3 p.m.; a “Workers’ Aid to Ukraine! Russia Out of Ukraine!” fundraiser/forum at the main public library branch at 133 Elm St. Saturday at 2 p.m.; and a series of expert roundtables and panel discussions hosted by the Quinnipiac Central European Institute at the Quinnipiac University Mt. Carmel Auditorium Saturday from 1 – 5 p.m.
Click on the video to watch Myron Melnyk, Carl Harvey, Olekseii Atnoniuk and Christina Logvynyuk discuss the one-year anniversary of the war and the road ahead, on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to subscribe to“Dateline New Haven” and here to subscribe to other WNHH FM podcasts.
There are a couple of young folks there who might consider flying over to Ukraine to take up arms, no?