New Yorkers mark ‘365 days of terror’ as they gather in protest
The Ukrainian flag flew above lower Manhattan to mark the first anniversary of the ongoing war with Russia before protesters gathered Friday outside the United Nations in a show of support for the battered nation.
Dozens of attendees joined in a morning moment of silence at Bowling Green for those killed in the year-long battle, with Ukraine Consul General Oleksii Holubov reciting the grim details of the last 12 months.
“Three-hundred-sixty-five days of days of terror,” Holubov said. “Fourteen million Ukrainians forced to flee their homes .... 365 days of prayer. As President Zelenskyy stated earlier today, it was a year of resilience. A year of care. A year of bravery.”
He was joined by an official from Mayor Adams’ office and a number of Ukrainians living in New York, many attendees dressed in the blue and yellow colors of their national flag as they sang their homeland’s national anthem.
“One year ago the world watched in shock as Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” said Edward Mermelstein, the mayor’s commissioner of foreign affairs. “The city of New York stands with the people of Ukraine and their struggle for independence.”
About 100 protesters assembled later in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the United Nations, chanting “Shame! Shame!” and “Glory to the nation!”
“We are demanding and calling upon the United Nations General Assembly to create an international war crimes tribunal,” said Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian World Congress.
The crowd included a pair of Ukrainian-American sisters with extended family still in the city of Lviv.
“I was emailing with them a couple of weeks ago, and they said they’re rationing electricity,” said Julianna Walchuk, 25, of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “They’re having ups and downs ... but there’s constant fear of what’s to come.”
The Ukrainian Institute of America displayed an installation of 500 hand-painted Easter eggs, known as pysanka, as a symbol of hope on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
“Legend says that as long as people are creating these eggs, the world will continue to exist,” said artist and curator Sofika Zielyk. “The war broke out and I just needed to do something.”
The first-generation American, born to Ukrainian refugees who came to the U.S., plans to take the eggs to Ukraine once the war is over.
“We will put as many eggs as we can on the mounds or burial places of children who died during the war,” she said.
Among those at the flag-raising was Ukrainian-born Lana Draginda, 50, a private caregiver from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who held a sign reading “1 Year of War, 1 Year of Nightmare.”
“Heartbreaking. It’s the worst it could be,” she said.
“I know Ukraine will win and I hope it will be as soon as possible. I wish everybody peace.”
Ian Livadnyi, 40, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn echoed those sentiments.
“It’s terrible, unfair war,” said Livadnyi, born in Kazakhstan and a one-time resident of Russia. “I support Ukraine. Putin’s gang should be put down.”
Holubov recited a litany of horrors from the last year: 5.9 million displaced Ukrainians, 10,000 drone attacks, 760 hospitals and more than 3,000 schools bombed. And Andrij Dobriansky of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America bemoaned the human toll of the last 12 months.
“We honor those who we have lost ... All those souls needlessly lost,” he said.
Congressman Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) called for continued U.S. support of Ukraine in its fight for independence.
“There are growing whispers on the extreme right of our politics that we Americans should retrench ourselves from engagement with Ukraine and the world, that we should put an end to our support of Ukraine and that maybe we must somehow choose between America and Ukraine,” he said.
“That is a dangerous way of thinking.”