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‘I have to do something’ woman protesting Russian invasion of Ukraine says at Loop rally

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Yevheniya Ivachenko, who says her family is seeking shelter in a basement in Ukraine, holds a sign as she stands with hundreds of Ukrainian Americans and their supporters in the Loop to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. “Together we can fight. … I believe there is hope for Ukraine,” she said. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Yevheniya Ivachenko, who says her family is seeking shelter in a basement in Ukraine, holds a sign as she stands with hundreds of Ukrainian Americans and their supporters in the Loop to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. “Together we can fight. … I believe there is hope for Ukraine,” she said. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times, Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Demonstrators walked throughout the Loop chanting “USA support Ukraine,” “Hands off Ukraine,” and “Putin stop the war.”

Hundreds marched Saturday in downtown Chicago in a continuing show of support for the Ukrainian people.

Among them was 24-year-old Nina Svirinovka.

“Everybody’s just scared for their life,” Svirinovka said. “So that’s why I’m here today; I have to do something.”

Rallies have been held in the city since Thursday when Russian soldiers invaded the Eastern European nation. Chicago is home to one of the United States’ largest Ukrainian populations, with about 54,000 people of Ukrainian heritage living in the Chicago area, according to the Census Bureau.

Nina Svirinovska and her mother Lilia Galian pose for a photo at Federal Plaza in the Loop during a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times, Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Nina Svirinovska and her mother Lilia Galian pose for a photo at Federal Plaza in the Loop during a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Svirinovka and her family moved to Chicago from Kharkiv, Ukraine in 2014. But her older sister, Olga, stayed and has been driving, trying to escape the invasion, for days now, Svirinovka said.

“We cannot cry all the time,” Lilia Galian, Svirinovka’s mother, said of her reason for coming to the rally.

Demonstrators marched throughout the Loop and stopped in front of popular landmarks, including the Art Institute and the “Cloud Gate” statue, while chanting “USA support Ukraine,” “Hands off Ukraine,” and “Putin stop the war.”

The Ukrainian national anthem was also sung.

Hundreds of Ukrainian Americans and their supporters march at Millennium Park in the Loop to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times, Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Hundreds of Ukrainian Americans and their supporters march at Millennium Park in the Loop to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2022. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

A caravan of semitrailers, some adorned with blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, stretched for blocks earlier in the day and honked their horns in a show of support.

Olesia Ilkiv, who moved to Chicago from Ukraine about four years ago, said she helped circulate a digital flyer for the protest and walked at the front of the march.

“I feel empty,” Ilkiv said of the situation in her home country. “Imagine if someone attacks your home, where do you go?”

Russian troops were closing in on Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev Saturday, with outbreaks of fighting on the city’s outskirts. Fighting also raged in two territories in eastern Ukraine that are controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine’s health minister reported 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others had been wounded during Europe’s largest land war since World War II.

Contributing: AP