On Thursday, Razom, a nonprofit Ukrainian-American human rights organization, held a rally through the streets of Manhattan, voicing their anger and opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at Lexington Avenue and East 67th Street, down the block from the Russian Federation Mission to the United Nations. They later gathered a block north of the United Nations to listen to President Joe Biden’s address to the nation as he levied another round of sanctions on Russia.
After singing the Ukrainian national anthem, protesters began marching towards the Russian Embassy, located on 91st St., between 5th and 6th Ave., to take their message directly to Russia. The message was clear: get out of Ukraine.
Protesters told NY1 reporter Alyssa Paolicelli they want the war to stop and Putin to go, and for Ukraine to remain a sovereign country.
Many of the protesters NY1 spoke with were young. They said they are drawing their inspiration from their Ukrainian brothers and sister back home.
“We need all the support we can get. As a nation, we are very strong and we are very unified, and I know most of my friends, most of the young generation of Ukraine, they’re ready to go fight for our sovereignty and for the peace of Ukraine,” said Sasha Boyko, who attended the protest. “Honestly, I’m over here, I’m at that stage where I would go too if I needed to because it’s my bloodline.”
“This is my heritage,” added Victoria Skala, another protester. “This is where my whole family is from. My whole bloodline is out there. We’re here to support our country, and it’s our land.”
According to the Migration Policy Institute, Brooklyn is home to the largest Russian and Ukrainian immigrant communities in the United States.There are 34,500 Russian immigrants and 45,300 Ukrainian immigrants in the county, the most of each in any county nationwide.
Brighton Beach is one of the hubs of those communities, an intersection of cultures that live together in harmony. It is known as Little Odessa, named for a city in Ukraine. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, locals were visibly upset and on edge Thursday.
“It’s very tense here for the last few days,” said Dina Barham, who worries the violence abroad may fuel tensions at home.
“We’re anticipating maybe fights later at night, people arguing in the store a lot,” she said. “A lot of businesses say do not talk about it. But there are little worries, and you can see it in their faces.”
Some residents in the community expressed fear for their families in Eastern Europe, but were also cautious about expressing any anger here.
“You don’t want to be in the middle of it,” Barham said. “You don’t want cross of, this is Russian business, this is Ukrainian. At the end of the day, they’re here in America for the reason, for their safety. This is America. This is neutral ground.”