CLEVELAND — Days before the one-year mark of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Northeast Ohioans reflected on the events of the past year, and where the war stands now.
On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland, where cultural items, books, and newspaper clippings tell the story of Ukraine’s history.
After walking through the museum and observing the traditional decorating of Ukrainian Easter eggs, Brown said that the Ukrainian community here in the United States, and here in Northeast Ohio, has “stood up” throughout the conflict.
“The Russians are surprised, one year later, of the success of the Ukrainian people, that they stood up stronger than perhaps anyone thought,” Sen. Brown said.
Brown said that it’s important that the United States continues to stand strongly for democracy.
“The message to the Russians is Ukraine’s going to continue to stand, and democracy is going to continue to stand,” he said.
One Northeast Ohioan who has continued to stand with Ukraine throughout the war is Dr. Taras Mahlay, a doctor with UH, who has put his career on hold to volunteer fulltime with the Cleveland Maidan Association.
Dr. Mahlay has been working to collect and send medical supplies to Ukraine. For him, the work is especially meaningful, as his parents are both from Ukraine, and he still has relatives, as well as colleagues, in the country. He said the need for supplies is enormous.
“It arrives at a hospital, they chew it up in a day or two, and they’re on the phone, “yeah, we’re short on this, or we’re short on that,’ especially surgical supplies and intensive care unit supplies,” he said. “Their intensive care units are overfilled, their surgical suites are continuously working. Obviously we also have the other problem of the generators and no electricity.”
Dr. Mahlay said the Cleveland Maidan Association has a number of events to collect donations and honor the Ukrainian community.
Oksana Dobronos works at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives, and left Ukraine with her two sons to stay with a host family in Brecksville. Her husband, a surgeon, stayed behind to defend their hometown, Sumy, which she said was surrounded at one time by Russian forces.
“Our city was surrounded, the column of tanks came through the city, but they [went] out and spread on the roads, and nobody could go out of the city, nobody could enter the city,” she said. “They shot one or two cars that wanted to go out of the city, then nobody tried this again.”
Dobronos recalled having difficulty finding food and medicine in their community while it was blocked off by Russian forces, describing waiting for hours in line to enter a grocery store, only to find empty shelves.
Her husband and others decided to do what they could to protect the city. She said ultimately the city was surrounded, but never occupied by Russian forces.
“I’m very proud of my husband and all the men who decided to go and protect our city,” she said, while acknowledging there were also men who died while fighting.
Dobronos said she has enjoyed working at the museum because it reminds her of home, and is a way to preserve Ukrainian culture during a time when it is actively being destroyed.
“They want to kill us, to destroy our country, to kill people,” she said, describing how Russian forces would burn Ukrainian books. Dobronos said Russian forces acted as if they never wanted Ukraine to exist at all.
“We are here, we can show you this culture, this process, and all the world can see that,” she said of the Ukrainian people who continue to sing traditional songs, wear cultural clothing, and continue to create art.
Dobronos said she was able to take books her friend wrote with her from Ukraine in order to keep them safe in the United States.
Though Dobronos said she and her sons have enjoyed their time in Ohio, it is time for them to go home. In March, they will be returning to Ukraine, where she hopes to continue working to support those fighting on the frontlines.
While she may be returning to a country still rocked by war, she said one small positive is the way Ukrainians have come together, as well as the way the global community has supported the country.
“Now, all people [are] united, and they’re trying to support teach other, we’re trying to do our best to win and to survive.”