
“I don’t know what’s worse, being over there and being in danger or being here and knowing that we can’t do anything, really,” said Oleksiy Vynnytskyy, 28, an urgent care nurse from Wheeling.
Waving flags of blue and yellow, about 100 Ukrainians gathered on the Harlem Avenue overpass Thursday morning to protest the Russian invasion of their homeland.
They were met with nonstop honks of approval from motorists on the Kennedy Expressway below.
“This is an existential battle for democracy, not simply for Ukraine, but all the values we hold very dear here in the West,” said Pavlo Bandriwsky, vice president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Illinois Division. The organization is based at the Ukrainian Cultural Center on Chicago Avenue.
“I was talking to my niece who’s in Ukraine this morning, they’re hearing bombs going off. They live near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine not far from an airport that was targeted,” said Bandriwsky, a retired financial services executive from the Northwest Side.
“She’s OK but she has young kids and they’re all very traumatized,” he said.
Bandriwsky said there are about 200,000 people of Ukrainian heritage in Illinois. A good portion of them live in the city, but also in Palatine and towns along Cumberland Road from Park Ridge to Elmwood Park,
Oleksiy Vynnytskyy, 28, an urgent care nurse from Wheeling, attended the protest with his sister, Anastasiya, and his wife and two kids.
“I don’t know what’s worse, being over there and being in danger or being here and knowing that we can’t do anything, really,” he said.
“This is not a war between the Russian people and our people. … This is a war between one crazy guy and his group and our country.” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Leaders in his hometown in western Ukraine have asked anyone able and willing to carry a gun to join in defending the community, he said. His parents work in a medical facility and will be there to help any wounded, he said.
“We want to show that the people in our country are not alone, the whole world is with them,” said Anastasiya Vynnytskyy, 25, a medical student from Mundelein.
“In Ukraine right now the whole nation is treating each other like brothers and sisters, they’re trying not to panic, trying to keep their mind cold, because they realize this is war,” she said. “Like this is actually happening. I talk to my friends and it’s hard for them to believe this is happening. They’re like ‘We’re like in the 21st century and we’re entering war in Europe? It’s just like incredible to put in your mind.”
Another demonstration was planned for 1 p.m. Thursday in Ukrainian Village along Oakley Boulevard south of Chicago Avenue.
“Pray for peace. Pray for Ukraine,” Bandriwsky said.
“Ukraine wants to have a democratic, independent, sovereign nation,” Bandriwsky said. “We want to live like normal people. Ukrainians have been under Moscow subjugation before, they suffered under the Communist regime for decades. Ukrainians don’t want that life. They want to live like we do in the West. They want rule of law. They want the opportunity for economic growth and the chance to raise their children in a solid environment. And it’s our obligation to help them with that.”