When Putin began to mobilize his forces on the Ukrainian border, he also mobilized Yaro Hetman.
Hetman wasn’t much into politics two months ago, but yesterday he helped organize a several-hundred-strong “Day of Solidarity” in front of the Lincoln Memorial, urging a decisive American response to Russia’s foreign-policy escalations.
“I could not sit home and watch what was happening in Ukraine, in my homeland,” the young Ukrainian-American told National Review.
The six Ukrainian-American organizations behind the rally called on the Biden administration to enact sanctions on the strategic Nord Stream 2 pipeline, specify what sanctions would be imposed if Russia expanded its incursions into Ukraine, and distribute additional lethal weaponry to the Ukrainian military, particularly advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems.
Ukrainian and American symbols dominated the scene, but the crowd of several hundred was also peppered with the banners of Russia’s other neighbors, with Estonian, Polish, Tatar, Belrusian, and Georgian flags flying in solidarity with the Ukrainian cause. Some see Ukraine’s fight as their own.
“Ukrainian security is the front line of security for the rest of Europe,” said Karin Shuey, Washington, D.C., director at the Estonian-American National Council.
The crowd heard from former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine John E. Herbst and William B. Taylor along with prominent Ukrainian-American community leaders. The crowd, while passionate, seemed unused to protesting, and speakers’ attempts to begin chants of “Sanctions now!” and “Putin, hands off Ukraine!” never quite took off. More in keeping with their spirit was the free coffee distributed to demonstrators by a local Ukrainian Orthodox church.
Second-generation Ukrainian-American Mark Chuma came down from Philadelphia for the rally. To him, the whole situation felt eerily familiar. As a child, he attended protests with his parents at the Soviet embassy calling for an end to the USSR’s domination of Ukraine. Today he carries on that legacy.
He wasn’t the only one. Roman Petyk’s parents fled Ukraine at the end of World War II, ultimately finding refuge in the United States.
“Americans have always supported countries that support democracy,” Petyk said, “This is an opportunity to demonstrate that commitment once again.”
Taylor told National Review that American support for Ukraine was a matter of national interest, a bulwark to the post–World War II international system that has “kept us in the United States secure.” Both he and Herbst presented the U.S. as a key actor responsible for safeguarding international norms.
For Ukrainian-Americans like Hetman, things are more personal.
“I have family and friends in Kyiv, southwest Ukraine and even in eastern Ukraine. No one is fleeing; everyone is going to stay and fight and defend Ukraine. This is their homeland.”