Hundreds of Triangle residents attend Stand With Ukraine rally as war continues
Tetyana Dashkin is sick of hearing Russian.
Dashkin was born in Ukraine, her husband in Russia, and they speak the language at home. But now, in the second week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dashkin’s feelings toward the language are hardening.
“The hate is so bad right now that I want to not even use this language,” Dashkin said.
Dashkin and her husband were among hundreds of people who gathered Saturday afternoon on the State Capitol grounds, many wearing blue and gold as they called for an end to the invasion. Like Dashkin, many in the crowd are tracking friends and relatives with messages through Facebook or WhatsApp.
Organizers asked those in attendance to contact legislators and ask them to provide more weapons to Ukraine, to enact a no-fly zone and to stop buying oil and gas from Russia. They asked Congress and the White House to accept Ukrainian refugees, as the United Nations estimates more than a million people have fled since Russia invaded.
“They have to know this has to stop and it needs to stop now,” said Donna Goldstein, a co-president of the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina, which helped organize the event.
Goldstein’s father was born in Ukraine, and she still has cousins living in the country.
Goldstein said her 28-year-old cousin is making Molotov cocktails in the basement of a Lviv school, and her cousin’s husband of less than a year signed up this week for the territorial defense.
As she talked, Goldstein took out her phone, pulling up a picture of the couple out with friends, looking like young people in any of the nation’s cities. Then she scrolled, finding another photo of her cousin’s husband grinning as he signed his enlistment papers.
“They want their country and they want democracy. They’re willing to fight for it, I think that kind of says it all. ... People had opportunities to leave. They did not,” Goldstein said.
For Dashkin, a particularly harrowing moment came Thursday evening, as Russian soliders mounted an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
When Chernobyl melted down in 1986, Dashkin was living 70 meters away. She fled with her mother and two daughters.
“I know how it is to run with your two kids — knowing nothing, going to nowhere,” Dashkin said.
The family sought refuge in Russia, staying for two months with a friend Daskin’s mother had made during World War II.
“It was friendship with people. They were in the army together during the second World War and they gave us shelter, everything. ... Even in my worst dream, nobody can expect that this (war) was going to happen,” Dashkin said.
Olena Kozlova-Pates, who has been organizing supply drives for goods that will be sent to Ukraine, said a friend emailed her overnight to say there is a genocide underway in the country and that her local high school’s principal had been killed in the invasion.
Kozlova-Pates called on college professors to start teaching Ukrainian history and to offer Ukrainian language lessons.
“We have looked at Ukraine through the prism of Russia, which is unacceptable,” said Kozlova-Pates, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine has no history or heritage of its own.
Near the end of Saturday’s rally, Kozlova-Pates went around the circle asking people where they were from. Many said North Carolina, but there were also many responses of Ukrainian cities that have rapidly become the subject of news broadcasts worldwide.
Those cities included Kyiv, but also Dnipro, Donetsk, Kherson, Lviv, Mariupol and Odessa, among many others.
“I’m sure you have seen pictures of various demonstrations — people coming out and supporting Ukraine and standing against the animal aggressor who is now trying to take over our home, the home that has been the home of the free for over a thousand years,” Kozlova-Pates said.
She continued, “Ukrainians have this freedom spirit inside them that will never be broken.”
Dashkin has been keeping up with two nephews and two nieces who are still in Ukraine. Her nephews live in high-rise apartment buildings in Kyiv and insist they will not leave.
For nearly three days, Dashkin has not been able to contact one of her nieces, who lives in a suburb of the city.
Dashkin’s other niece, who is in Lviv, sent Dashkin a message Saturday that said, “Now is the Third World War, in which only two countries are at war. Russia, and Ukraine for the whole world.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Hundreds of Triangle residents attend Stand With Ukraine rally as war continues."