A crowd of people filled the lawn of Bay Shore Church Friday, April 15 during a vigil to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
“On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded my country,” said Yevgeniya Pokhylko, a Ukrainian immigrant and Long Beach resident. “The lives of every Ukrainian around the world changed overnight.”
She continued: “Today marks the 51st day of this cruel war. It also marks the 51st day of collective pain, suffering, shock, disbelief and agonizing grief. Grief for every life lost, for every orphan left behind, for every family torn apart, for every dream shattered.”
Pokhylko led the crowd in a moment of silence while the Ukrainian folk song Plyve Kacha Po Tysyni played.
On Tuesday, April 12, President Joe Biden referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “genocide.”
According to the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations, since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24 there have been a total of 977 recorded civilian deaths in Ukraine, as of March 22. According to the same report, another 1,594 Ukrainian civilians have reportedly been injured since the start of the Russian invasion.
The vigil on April 15 began with the playing of Ukraine’s national anthem, and attendees held and waved Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag throughout the event.
“While the United States of America is my home, Ukraine is my motherland, my roots, my family, my friends, my soul and my heart,” Pokhylko said to the crowd.
According to the Shevchenko Scientific Society, in 2018 there were a recorded 320,000 Ukrainian immigrants living in the United States.
“A lot of Ukrainians, as you see, [have] come together and we are standing together,” said Anna Lugo, a Long Beach resident and Ukrainian immigrant. “This is an incredible time for Ukraine right now. But every Ukrainian, wherever the person is, in Ukraine or abroad, [is trying] to do something.”
Lugo went on to describe what her loved ones were doing to help Ukraine: her parents are collecting clothes and food for refugees from other parts of Ukraine, her brother works as a firefighter helping protect the city of Cherkasy, and her sister is helping transport humanitarian aid as a member of Ukraine’s postal service.
“I asked them many times, ‘Please come here, it is safer here,’” Lugo said. “But they refused. Their words were ‘This is my land. This is my house. There is my neighbor. There is my relative across the street. I can’t leave. We will fight. We will help how we can here.’”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is continuing a disinformation campaign in Russia, banning Russian journalists from using the words “war” or “invasion” when describing what is happening in Ukraine, according to National Public Radio.
According to multiple media outlets, Russian leadership has also falsely attempted to paint the entire leadership of Ukraine as being Nazis or Neo-Nazis, despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish.
According to the Russian Mission in Geneva’s English translation of a statement made by Putin on Feb. 24, he claimed that Russia “will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.”
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as of March 31 around 10.5 million people had been displaced by the invasion, both internally and across borders, representing around a quarter of Ukraine’s total population.
“Peace is a process and we contribute to that process, can and should contribute to the process, by how we treat each other, by how we raise our children, by how we live our lives,” said Ivan Prokopenko, a Ukrainian student studying at Cal State Long Beach. “Desire for peace is as natural as desire for water.”
