The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a big emotional impact in the Rochester area for many of the estimated 40,000+ people of Ukrainian descent who live in the region.
Olena Prokopovych is a professor of political science at Nazareth College. She said that most of her friends and family in Ukraine have decided not to flee.
If Russians reach the streets of the capital, she said they will not have an easy time gaining control.
“Ukrainians will never give up,” said Prokopovych. “Ukrainians will fight for years and decades. Ukraine has an enormous diaspora outside, and Ukrainians all over the world will be asking their friends to continue the fight for as long as it takes.”
Prokopovych was a guest on WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson.
Oleg Lebedko is one of the local Ukrainians who still has family in that country. He said the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Rochester, which started a support effort several years ago, will again try to collect money and supplies for people in Ukraine.
“We’ve been collecting medical supplies, all kinds of funds to help Ukraine since 2014,” said Lebedko. “And now, we’re starting to do that again.”
Lebedko told WXXI News he has gone beyond being just concerned about the invasion in Ukraine, and now he’s just angry that other world powers cannot stop the Russian president from invading Ukraine and killing innocent people.
During a stop at the downtown Rochester campus of Monroe Community College on Thursday to talk about her bill designed to strength the U.S. manufacturing base, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the actions by Russia are extremely destabilizing, not only for that region, but for the entire world.
Gillibrand said the invasion of Ukraine is “unprovoked” and “an outrage” to what should be the kind of national security norm we should expect to see in Europe.
“It is a dangerous invasion of Ukraine,” said the New York Democrat. “Not only have Ukrainians already suffered, lives have been lost, but it has the potential to escalate into a regional conflict. We stand ready to support the Ukrainian people.”
Gillibrand cited recent sanctions imposed by the U.S and NATO allies on Russia, as well as the efforts by the Western allies to provide military equipment to Ukraine as among the moves she hopes will have an impact on slowing the Russian invasion.
The senator also said that she does back a temporary lifting of the federal gas tax and using some of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help keep gas prices from rising too quickly.
The senator also said the U.S. should call on its Middle Eastern allies to start increasing oil production.
“We do far enough for those allies that are oil rich countries, and they should be now doing this for the world economy,“ said Gillibrand. The senator said that she will publicly call on Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern allies to increase oil production.
