Rhode Islanders rally at the State House to support Ukraine and displaced children

PROVIDENCE — Irene Shewchuk, 72, pressed a bouquet of sunflowers to her chest and wore Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag like a shawl Saturday while hoping somehow that the resilient citizens of the besieged nation 4,500 miles away would learn that she stood with them.

Ukrainians on the front lines of Russia’s month-long invasion, she fears, are only getting snippets of news from the outside; they may not know how the world is united against Vladimir Putin’s unjust and indiscriminate war.

And so Shewchuk, whose grandparents came from Ukraine, joined seven other members of St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Woonsocket and drove to the State House Saturday where 150 others with equal outrage called for the war’s end.

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“You don’t realize when you are here in the United States that there are people there who are getting bombed — who can’t leave their apartments for fear of getting shot — and don’t know that the world is with them,” said Shewchuk. “We are trying to do whatever we can to support them."

Rally crosses the political divide

One of the organizers of the rally, Michael Fine, the former director of the state Health Department, said the event was sponsored by a collaboration of Rhode Island religious groups, labor and politicians of all stripes.

“What's amazing is everybody jumped in together, regardless of political party or bias,” said Fine. “This is all of us thinking together about freedom and democracy and how you support the people of Ukraine.”

The event was also a chance for people to raise money for the displaced children of Ukraine by donating to the Rhode Islanders for Ukraine Fund through UNICEF (www.tinyurl.com/yskb4pdd).

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More than 3.7 million Ukrainians, most of them women and children, have fled to neighboring countries since the war began, the sixth-largest refugee outflow over the last 60-plus years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of United Nations data.

Those refugees represent about 9% of Ukraine’s pre-invasion population of about 41.1 million people.

Speaking to the crowd, Fine said, “I am outraged by this attack on the freedom and democracy of a sovereign nation. And I’m here because I know that all the health care in the world, all the great work of the nurses and doctors on this planet, is put to shame when a tyrant goes on a rampage, and human bodies and human lives are sacrificed needlessly, selfishly. Just because.”

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Prayers for peace, and help for refugees

Church leaders led the crowd in prayers, including Bishop Nicholas Knisely of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.

“We pray for the people of Ukraine,” he said. “We pray for peace. ... Above all, we pray for all your precious children.”

Teddi Jallow, co-founder of Providence's Refugee Dream Center and a former refugee herself from the African country of Gambia, reminded rally attendees that “darkness is always followed by light.”

That light can shine as acts of kindness, she said, urging all to reach out and help those traumatized by the Ukrainian invasion.

Gov. Dan McKee reiterated his message conveyed last month in a letter to President Joe Biden, that Rhode Island is ready to host Ukrainian refugees.

And he said Biden was “absolutely correct” when earlier Saturday the president, speaking in Poland, described Putin as a tyrant and said “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

Said McKee: “An evil man does not deserve to be in power in any country in the world.”

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Ukrainian brothers buoyed by show of support

Oleg Fedorchuk, 49, formerly of Ukraine, waved the largest Ukrainian flag in the crowd.

Beside him was his 40-year-old brother Yevgen, who wore the American flag over his shoulders.

Oleg came to the United States in "1997, August 13th," his brother in 2006.

Both work in the construction trades and have relatives back in Kiev, some who have taken up arms against the Russians, while some women have had to run.

Oleg said he served in the Ukrainian army when he was younger.

“We were like neighbors with Russia then," he said. "We never thought this guy [Putin] would do this to us.”

He wanted to thank people like Irene Shewchuk, and all the rally attendees, for coming out to support his mother country.

“It’s very important,” he said. When other Ukrainians see it, “they appreciate it.”

“God bless America,” he said. “And God bless Ukraine.”

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Islanders offer prayers, donations for Ukraine and refugees