‘I have to do something’
Hundreds demonstrate downtown in support of Ukraine
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.
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.
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?”