February 26, 2022 | Times Square
“We are descendants of strong ancestors.”
“How’re you holding up?” I ask Oksana when I spot her at one corner of Times Square, where a crowd has gathered in support of Ukraine on Saturday, February 26. Her eyes betray the tears she shed not long ago, but her voice is calm and resolute. Oksana has the flag of Ukraine wrapped around her like a cape that may give her superpowers.
“I’m trying to stay courageous for our people in Ukraine. It’s very difficult. None of us slept. I can’t eat, for three days now.”
Oksana Gapyuk, 29, is from Ivano-Frankivsk in Western Ukraine. She’s lived in the US since 2007, but members of her family, including her sister who has two young children, and her 85-year-old grandmother, are back in Ukraine.
“My grandmother, who survived the Second World War and the Soviet occupation, is very courageous. And she has made us feel calmer. She’s talking about Ukraine with a smile on her face, saying that everything will be fine,” says Oksana. “We’re taking a lot of our strength from our people in Ukraine. And we’re trying to be as useful as we can for them.”
Honestly, none of the Ukrainians are shocked
“For the past eight years, Ukrainians have been trying to get the Western media to call it what it is – a war,” says Oksana. To her, calling the current situation a crisis minimizes what it is, a Russian war on Ukraine. “Honestly, none of the Ukrainians are shocked. We’ve been talking about it for eight years, begging for assistance, trying to prepare as much as we could.” Oksana says that Ukrainians are prepared, civilians taking arms ready to defend their land.
“We need a lot of help,” she pleads on behalf of her country, and says they need people to post as much as possible on social media to raise awareness. No help is too little, she repeats a few times.
“I know that maybe some Russians would be afraid to come in front of Ukrainians. But there’s some of them here now. And there’s a huge Russian community in New York, and I just would have hoped to see more of them. Because right now, it seems that they’re just quiet, while Russians in Russia are putting their lives at risk, speaking against the war on Ukraine.
Russians in New York have nothing to lose, and yet they’re quiet. Most of them are quiet, and that’s infuriating. They need to be more vocal.”
Ukrainians are coming together like never before
Coming to protest, to Oksana, is about raising awareness and showing the might of the Ukrainian diaspora, to show that she stands with the people of Ukraine. But it’s also a source of strength and comfort to be with fellow Ukrainians. “It’s like a hug. We need the comfort of each other. Nobody understands what we’re going through like one another, and we come here to be together.”
Oksana says that the Ukrainian community here in New York is strong and united. The Ukrainian diaspora came to the United States in several waves, following the end of the First World War, Second World War, and during the Soviet era. The Ukrainian community is well established, with Ukrainian churches, museums, schools, and restaurants, including Veselka, a well-loved East Village establishment.
At protests, Oksana runs into familiar faces. Even as we were speaking, a friend of Oksana came to greet her. Coming out to protest at Times Square this week, she’s gotten to reconnect with people she hasn’t seen since the Maidan protest, and other times she’s come out to protest the Russian aggression.
Oksana says she’s happy to see the nation become more united than ever. “Ukrainians like never before are coming together and becoming an even stronger nation.”
Standing against Russification
Oksana visits Ukraine whenever she can, which includes her most recent visit in September 2021. “It was nice to see more people speak Ukrainian. People are standing against Russification. It was very beautiful, and very peaceful.”
Though Ukrainian is the official language of the country, Oksana says Ukraine’s TV channels, radio, and music are still predominantly Russian content in the Russian language.
“We have been fighting tooth and nail to get some type of quotas, to get Ukrainian content on Ukrainian radio and TV. We’re not oppressing the Russian language. We’re trying to protect the indiginous language of the Ukrainian people.”
Oksana says representation of the Ukrainian language in the media has improved in recent years thanks to relentless activism. “More people realized that they need to decolonize themselves, and speak in the language of their own people.”
Unity as Ukrainians
And at this moment, now more than ever, Oksana says she finds unity amongst Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
“More than ever, I see a Ukrainian person that speaks Russian as my brother and my sister. I see them as Ukrainians. Because I see how we’re all in unity. We just realized that the key word in Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians is Ukrainians. And we’re one. And we’re going to work towards becoming more unified after this is over.
I see an overwhelming number of them on social media speaking directly to Russians, in the language the Russians understand, that they don’t need protection. That nobody’s oppressing them. That they only need protection from Russia.”
A desire to return
Ever since she moved to New York as a fifteen-year-old girl, Oksana’s been vocal about the struggles of Ukrainians. Her classmates didn’t understand. “They were just like, you’re so patriotic! But that’s not it. Ukrainian people are oppressed, their language has been threatened. Russia is trying to take a lot of our cultural identity and mark it as Russian.”
Having studied International Relations and Global Affairs in college and in graduate school, Oksana’s worked in international affairs and diplomacy spaces, including at the Ukrainian Consulate in New York. Currently, she’s taking coding and data analytics courses through Google, looking to change career directions.
Oksana remembers how difficult it was for her to adjust when she and her family first moved to the United States. A lot of things were very different, including the food. While she’s since found community and established a life here, Oksana’s love for Ukraine has never faded.
She’s been looking to move back to Ukraine for a while, especially since being able to work remotely. “The first thing we’ll do is go to Ukraine and we will rebuild. Then, slowly, I’ll try to focus on my career and how I can add to the value of Ukraine.”
No-fly zone for Ukraine
“Ukraine has never invaded a country, has never colonized, has never enslaved, has never traded slaves. It has never benefited from European imperialism. We’re just literally standing against one of the biggest armies in the world and other biggest armies in the world are just watching us, and saying, good job. And that has to change.”
Oksana says one of the key things that Ukraine needs right now is for NATO to declare Ukraine a no-fly zone and protect Ukrainian skies. “We will cover the rest, but we need NATO to cover our skies.”
Our ancestors are praying for us up there
“What gives me hope is the knowledge that Ukrainians have been through worse, and they have prevailed. They have overcome this. We’re together. We’re one. Ukrainians that are in Ukraine are holding the front. They are fighting with everything that they have. And seeing them marching while singing Ukrainian folk songs, I have no doubt that Ukraine will prevail. I am terrified of how many lives we have to lose until that happens, but no doubt, no doubt in anybody’s mind that Ukraine will prevail.
My grandmother, she’s in the mountains. We’re from the mountains. People are prepared to go to the mountains and seek shelter in the mountains, though it would be the absolute last thing we would do. Because they can’t survive in the Ukrainian mountains but we can. After World War II, Ukrainians fought for over ten years with the Red Army for independence. The war ended for the rest of the world, but the Ukrainians continued to fight for another ten years. And mountains played an incredible role in protecting our freedom fighters. And they were digging themselves in bunkers, and my grandma would bring them food.
Many of us Ukrainians here have somebody that has been a freedom fighter who fought for Ukraine. We are descendants of strong ancestors. And they are praying for us up there.”
