Slava Ukraini.
“Glory to Ukraine,” in English.
Those two words that serve as a call to arms and a simple, everyday greeting in a country long-accustomed to war, pealed across WVU’s downtown campus late Friday afternoon.
Students, professors and other kindred souls from the Ukrainian Community of Morgantown gathered at the steps of the Mountainlair, as the sun’s rays began to dip into the dusk of the 45-degree day.
They were there to mark the first anniversary of the start of the fighting.
Tanks and soldiers began massing at Ukraine’s borders in plain sight last Feb. 24.
When those tanks churned Ukrainian soil, and when those Russian soldiers unshouldered their rifles to draw a bead, it was the beginning of the largest military ground assault in Europe since World War II.
The invasion, Putin said, would be fast and fierce. The fighting would be over in weeks, the Russian president predicted.
Hours, even.
A year later, the fighting continues.
Roughly 5,000 Russian missile strikes later, the fighting continues.
More than 3,500 airstrikes and 1,000 drone strikes later – the fighting continues.
Ukraine is under siege, but not quite in every way.
That’s because Russia isn’t winning hearts and minds.
And the country it is trying to annex (again) is bolstered and bankrolled by support from the West, in the form of monies and material.
In the hours after the invasion, a half-a-world away in Morgantown, the above-mentioned community would form.
Many in that community – known for its unconditional, nonprofit support of the cause – hail from Ukraine and other environs across eastern Europe.
Professors and students, mainly, forging new lives and careers in the West, while keeping home in their hearts.
“Well, again, Putin wasn’t counting on the resolve of the Ukrainian people,” Khrystyna Pelchar said earlier this week.
Pelchar, a WVU doctoral student in political science, grew up in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, where her mother, grandmother and younger sister still live.
They had ample chances to leave, but they didn’t.
The reason was uncomplicated.
They simply preferred not to.
Her sister continued her university studies there, and her mother and grandmother joined the home front effort – while founding a business, besides.
“Life for them is there,” Pelchar said. “And that’s even if I don’t like it.”
The last time she was able to talk with her mother, fighter planes were low in the sky.
Pelchar didn’t like that, either.
“What can you do?” she asked.
Well, you can do what every civilian does in such circumstance, she said, answering her question.
You can organize.
There’s the Ukrainian Community of Morgantown, she said.
And the recently formed Ukrainian Mountaineers Association, a spinoff group headed by her.
You invest in awareness and empathy, Pelchar said, and hope it pays off in the form of dollar donations to the coffers.
A traveling exhibit featuring the work of combat photographers titled, “Ukraine: 365 Days of Defending Freedom,” was set up in the Mountainlair before Friday’s rally.
That’s one image for every day of the war, Pelchar said.
Meanwhile, the rally on the ‘Lair steps featured remarks by clergy from the city’s Jewish, Orthodox Catholic and Presbyterian faith communities.
A “Free Ukraine” benefit concert featuring The Sages, Better Off as Animals, the Tom Batchelor Band and Lords of Lester is also set for 7 p.m. Sunday at the 123 Pleasant St. music venue.
Proceeds – all 100%, Pelchar said – will provide medical supplies and technological assets for Ukrainian citizens on the ground and refugees in flight.
The invasion, and all its attrition, amounts to one rolling war crime, she said.
When she talks about it, she sounds weary.
“We’re all praying,” she said. “This is life. I wish I was younger.”
She’s 24 years old.
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