Rally for Ukraine held in Pittsburgh
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fernanda Mykhailiv, right, of McDonald, and her best friend, Mariana Sywy, of Moon, are the wives of Ukranina men. Mykhailiv has family and friends who live overseas, and Russia’s invasion of her husband’s home country has been difficult for him.
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Romchyk Konecky, of Greentree, is one of the first to arrive to Liberty Avenue Park downtown ahead of the Ukraine rally in Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. Some of Konecky’s relatives live in Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Liberty Avenue Park in downtown Pittsburgh was colored in Ukranian, American and other flags Sunday afternoon. Hundreds turned out to protest the Russian invasion and stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Andrew Romanchik, left, of Franklin Park; Kateryna Petrylo and Hrystyna Petrylo, of Scott Township, gathered wtih hundreds of others in downtown Pittsburgh Sunday to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. All three have family in Ukraine. Romanchik’s family is working to drive refugees from Ukraine to Poland, while the Petrylos grandmother is hunkered down while war rages in her home country.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh’s Alina Zhukotska, right, and her husband, Sam Kublitskyi, have family in Ukraine. They attended Sunday’s peaceful rally in Liberty Avenue Park.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A group of Ukranian-Americans gathers in Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue Park Sunday to protest Russia’s invasion of that country. Hundreds gathered on the square to speak, pray and stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
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Emma Voloshyn’s grandmother lives in Ukraine, where civilians are fighting Russian troops. Voloshyn, four; her brother Mark, one; and her mother, Oksana Voloshyn, an international student, rallied with hundreds of Pittsburghers Sunday afternoon to call for peace overseas.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Mark Voloshyn, one, has never met his grandparents, who both live in Ukraine. Mark and his sister Emma, four, attended the rally in Liberty Avenue Park Sunday with their mom Oksana Voloshyn, where Ukranian-Americans and allies called for peace overseas.
Hundreds joined in downtown Pittsburgh's Liberty Avenue Park Sunday afternoon to pray for peace overseas.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Hundreds gathered in Liberty Avenue Park in downtown Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon to rally for peace in Ukraine. Along with colorful flags, protestors arrived to the rally with photos of loved ones and handmade signs.
At the peaceful protest Sunday afternoon in downtown Pittsburgh, hundreds of Ukranian-Americans and allies gathered to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Protesters chanted, “Shelter our skies” at a rally in downtown Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. Hundreds turned out to stand in solidarity with and pray for Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Rev. Timothy Tomson, of St. Mary’s Ukranian Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, left, leads a peaceful crowd in prayer and song Sunday afternoon. Hundreds gathered to pray for and stand in solidarity with Ukraine in downtown Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue Park.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The crowd sings, cheers and laughs in downtown Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue Park Sunday afternoon. Hundreds gathered with homemade signs, Ukranian flags and relics to show support for Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey delivers a uniting address to the hundreds gathered in Liberty Avenue Park Sunday afternoon. Gainey and Pittsburgh-area residents sang, chanted and offered support to Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Sunflowers – the Ukranian national flower – were in abundance at Liberty Avenue Park Sunday, where hundreds gathered to show support for Ukraine. Attendees sang, prayed, chanted and delivered moving speeches at the peaceful rally.
Esme White holds a sign that reads "Stop war!" above the crowd, on the shoulders of her grandfather, Alex Shabalov, during the peaceful rally in Liberty Avenue Park Sunday afternoon. White's grandfather and mother, Anna Shabalov, moved to Pittsburgh from Latvia in 1992 and turned out to the rally to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A peaceful rallier tapes the Ukranian flag to the Gateway Center sign in downtown Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. The Ukranian flag’s blue symbolizes wide blue skies, while the yellow represents the nation’s wheat fields.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Hundreds gathered in Liberty Avenue Park, Pittsburgh, Sunday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful ralliers brought American and Ukranian flags, relics and homemade signs to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
Liberty Avenue Park was awash in a sea of blue and yellow Sunday afternoon, as hundreds of people carrying flags and banners bearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag turned out in Downtown Pittsburgh to show their support for Ukraine.
The rally was organized by the Ukrainian American Youth of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
People waved the nation’s flag – yellow for wheat, blue for wide blue skies – and held up signs proclaiming “Stand up for Ukraine” and “No War,” and denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Cars honked horns in support as they drove past the crowd.
Among those who attended the rally was Fernanda Mykhailiv of McDonald, Washington County, whose husband, Bohdan, was born in Ukraine and lived there until he was 7, when he moved with his mother to the United States.
Bohdan Mykhailiv has family and friends who live in Ukraine, and the past days since Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing as many as 400,000 Ukrainians to flee the country, have been difficult for him.
“It’s hard to see where you love and where you were raised getting destroyed,” said Mykhailiv.
Rev. Timothy Tomson, pastor of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, led prayers, and the crowd sang both the American and Ukrainian national anthems.
Many who attended the rally have family and friends in who live Ukraine, and fear for their safety.
Tomson said he recently talked with a cousin who lives in Kyiv, and his cousin told him he took his children to his grandparents’ farm in western Ukraine and returned to Kiev to fight.
“The men and women of Ukraine are incredibly brave,” said Tomson. “Mr. Putin is evil. He’s a 21st-century Hitler.”
Ukrainian defense forces have put up fierce resistance, and the capital city of Kyiv remained under Ukrainian control Sunday after consecutive days of fierce fighting.
Several who attended praised the courage of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who remains in Kyiv, and said they were proud of the Ukrainian people’s resolve, with thousands of men volunteering and taking up arms to fight the Russian army and women making Molotov cocktails to defend themselves.
Theodosy Sywy, a member of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie whose parents came to the United States from Lviv and Ternopil, said it’s heart-breaking to see events unfold.
“It’s horrific. Most Ukraininans I know said no, don’t worry, it will never happen, he won’t invade, Putin is not that crazy,” said Sywy. “But Putin is that crazy.”
Bohdan Konecky of Greentree, also attended the rally.
Born in Western Ukraine, he grew up in Siberia after his father and family were sent there following World War II.
Konecky immigrated to the United States in 1962, and his sister, her family, and other family members still live in Ukraine.
He talks with them every day.
“So far, they’re OK. (Ukrainians) are very patriotic, and they think they will kick the shit out of Russia. This generation grew up being taught Ukrainian history and they are proud of it and proud of their country,” said Konecky.
He mentioned his dismay that Putin wasn’t stopped before invading Ukraine.
“People do not learn, they forget already about the Second World War and what led to it. They let Hitler take a part of France and said, ‘Well, he’ll stop there,’ and then he took Poland and you have the Second World War. Putin came into Georgia and it was, well, maybe he’ll stop there, then he took part of Ukraine, Crimea, and it was well, maybe that’s all, and now he wants to take all of Ukraine and I hope it doesn’t lead to World War III,” he said.
Mayor Ed Gainey also spoke, saying, “We need to pray more than ever for world peace. We need to pray for the people of Ukraine, we need to pray that Russia wakes up and understands that what they’re doing is wrong, what they’re doing is hurting people and creating casualties and war all across the world. It is time that we the people stand up and say no to war and yes to peace.”
Andrew Romanchik of the Ukrainian American Youth, commented on the supporters who gathered to stand with the Ukrainian community.
“That speaks to how united we stand. We are all able to unite for Ukraine,” he said. “By standing for Ukraine, we are standing for the free world, we are standing for democracy, we are standing for our ancestors, for our culture, for our heritage.”