Ukrainians in New York commemorate three years since Russia's invasion

The Guardian

24-02-2025

New York City officials, foreign dignitaries and members of the city's Ukrainian community gathered in New York on Monday to raise the Ukrainian flag above lower Manhattan, marking three years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The anniversary this year follows escalating tensions between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Last week, the US president falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war and labeled Zelenskyy as 'a dictator', while the Ukrainian president expressed frustration over being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war and accused Trump of living in a Kremlin 'disinformation bubble'.
Several dozen people, holding Ukrainian flags and dressed in blue and yellow, stood in the crowd at Bowling Green park on Monday morning, and observed a moment of silence in between remarks delivered by representatives and organizers to commemorate the anniversary.
'Today we mark three years of Russian barbaric invasion of Ukraine and unprecedented of a large-scale war that [Vladimir] Putin unleashed on the European continent,' Serhiy Ivanchov, the consulate general of Ukraine in New York, told the crowd. 'Three years of our resistance'.
'Unfortunately, the Russian unprovoked war continues and Ukraine still needs international support more than ever,' Ivanchov said. 'Ukraine needs a reliable and clear system of security guarantees.'
New York City is home to the largest Ukrainian community in the United States, with around 150,000 Ukrainian New Yorkers.
The city's mayor, Eric Adams, who attended the Ukrainian flag raising last year, did not attend Monday's ceremony, but sent two representatives from the mayor's office of immigrants affairs in his place.
Dilip Chauhan, the deputy commissioner for the mayor's office for international affairs, read out a statement sent from Adams in which he said that Ukrainians 'throughout the five boroughs have long enhanced life in our diverse city and they will continue to play a key role as we take bold steps to grow our economy and afford a safer, fairer and more prosperous future'.
The mayor proclaimed Monday, 24 February 2025, as Ukrainian Heritage Day, and said in his statement he was 'honored and deeply moved on this anniversary to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian New Yorkers as we raise their flag and say in a single unified voice, united against aggression and 'Slava Ukraine' (glory to Ukraine)'.
At the gathering two wounded Ukrainian soldiers were present. As the national anthem of Ukraine was performed and the Ukrainian flag was raised alongside the US flag, many attendees wiped away their tears.
'We have gathered to remember a very solemn day that many of us will never be able to wrench from our hearts, hearts that many of us will never be able to put together,' Andrij Dobriansky, director of communications and media for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America said.
Among those in the crowd was Dasha Wilson, who had a Ukrainian flag wrapped around her shoulders.
'I'm very proud of my country that we have withstood for three years,' said Wilson, who moved to New York 10 years ago. 'I'm very appreciative for Americans for helping Ukraine.'
Given the recent rising tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy, Wilson said that she hopes that the US and Ukraine will 'remain good partners' and continue to 'work together'.
Last week's geopolitical events shocked many Ukrainians at home and abroad as well as US lawmakers and allies.
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This week, members of New York's Ukrainian community told the Guardian that they were feeling a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine amid the unprecedented rise in tension between the US and Ukrainian leaders.
On Monday, the New York state assemblyman Michael Novakhov – a Republican who represents Brighton Beach, home to one of the world's largest concentrations of immigrants from the former Soviet Union – spoke directly to Trump.
'Mr President, I voted three times for you. I am a Republican, but Mr President, Putin is the dictator, not Zelenskyy. Russia started the war, not Ukraine,' he told the crowd.
Another speaker, Oleksandr Taran – president of Svitanok NYC, a New York-based organization that advocates for Ukraine's sovereignty and combats disinformation – recalled his memories of the day that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
'The evening of February 23 I was going about my usual chores when I glanced at the television,' said Taran, who moved to New York eight years ago. 'Suddenly, the breaking news banner appeared, explosions in Kyiv, my hometown, my heart stopped. Ukraine was under attack.'
'And so it began,' he continued, 'the war that upended millions of lives in a matter of hours, Friday morning, and the war that we as Ukrainian Americans have been fighting in our own way ever since'.
He added: 'The world soon learned, this war would not be over in days or weeks, and it would demand relentless courage from the Ukrainians and support from our allies worldwide.
'If this tragedy has shown us anything, it is the immeasurable strength and unity of our people in crisis; our identity becomes an anchor.'
Julius Constantine Motal contributed reporting