PARMA, Ohio — Locally, many Ukrainian organizations are uniting to pray and show support for Ukraine, including one school filled with children who are broken up by what's happening.
“Ukraine is a very beautiful country and we don’t want it ruined by Russia’s army or Putin,” says 16 year old student, Yuriy Tukalevskyy.
“Russia is putting bombs to houses and in a second, people are dead,” says 6 year old, Eva Cox.
Students young and old at Ridna Shkola, the Cleveland School of Ukrainian Studies, are devastated by what they’re seeing.
“People killing each other is bad,” Cox says.
“It’s terrible seeing my people and my architecture and the culture of Ukraine being ruined by an army,” Tukalevskyy added.
The school is filled with Ukrainian pride, made up of kindergarten through 11th grade students with Ukrainian heritage. They come here once a week to learn everything from language, grammar and culture, to history and geography. Most still have family living in Ukraine and are thankful for the support they’ve been receiving.
Tukalevskyy says, “I still feel like I’m a part of Ukraine. My family is there, my extended family. Everybody around the world is standing in solidarity and we’re very thankful for that.”
Those at the school, like many around the country, have been participating in prayer services and rallies. Saturday, teachers even held an impromptu bake sale to raise money for Ukrainian soldiers. Soldiers who are fighting to keep the student’s country and extended family, alive.
“Ukraine is a strong nation, I believe that we’ll pull through it as nation and as a people,” says Tukalevskyy. “Our soldiers defending on the front lines, fighting as they have been for centuries at this point for their independence. It’s heartbreaking that history is repeating itself. It’s just terrible.”
The school will be participating in a 3:00pm service call at St. Josephat's in Parma on Sunday, followed by a rally at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral at 3:30pm.