NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Carrying handmade signs and singing songs in their native tongue, Ukrainians and supporters marched in Norfolk’s Town Point Park Friday as Russian forces were poised to capture Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Dr. Anna Makhorkina, whose parents live in western Ukraine, set the scene for the crisis in Ukraine that has tentacles across the globe.
“If Ukraine is not safe, no one is safe; the world is not safe,” said Makhorkina, who is on the staff at Old Dominion University.
In Ukraine’s part of the world, democracy is under attack.
Exercising a right many Americans take for granted — the right to peaceably assemble and protest — Ukrainians, some in tears, cried out for help as their home country is under attack.
Tania Skorokhog, an ODU alum, told reporters that family members and neighbors who don’t have a basement have been hiding in her family’s basement for more than 24 hours. She shared a cell phone video of adults and seven children — the youngest only 3 months old — in cramped conditions under a home.
“They have been sitting there in the basement they are hearing all the sounds from bombs from Russia. This is just so terrible,” said Skorokhog.
Just Thursday, Skorokhog says another neighbor was killed and a man was seriously injured when they were attacked.
“It’s a family of two kids. My relative’s friend lost their mom yesterday… A piece of a bomb hit their backyard she and my uncle happen to be in the backyard and they got killed and a third person who was with them. He is in the hospital in the intensive care unit, so for my grandmother [who lives nearby], it was so hard. I talked to her today. They were crying. And how can you explain to kids their mom is gone and their father is in the hospital?” explained Skorokhog, who worked as a journalist in Ukraine.
Virginia Congressman, Rob Wittman (R-Westmoreland), who is the vice ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, was blunt in his assessment of the invasion.
“This unprovoked barbaric attack against a fledgling democracy in Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable. The world needs to do everything possible to invoke as great a cost on Russia as possible,” he said.
The Republican called for sanctions that would hit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal wallet and he is calling for Russia to be removed from the cooperative known as SWIFT: The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
Ukrainians are prepared to fight back. The government has even encouraged people to prepare and then use Molotov cocktails to defend themselves.
“It’s sad that it has come to this, but the Ukrainian people are not going to stand and allow this to happen. You are going to find Ukrainian citizens pushing back and they are using every means possible. Yes, it will be one that, unfortunately, there will be casualties and there will be significant impacts on civilian populations,” Wittman said.
A humanitarian crisis looms as millions are on the run.
“It is just scary because we don’t know what is going to be next,” said Skorokhog.