Hundreds of Long Islanders packed the Polish National Home in Glen Cove last Sunday to call for an end to the three-year war in Ukraine — not on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms, but in a way that holds Russia accountable.
The event, sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, featured Ukrainian citizens, elected officials and community leaders, who spoke about the devastating human toll of the war and the need for unwavering American support.
Jolanta Zamecka, the center’s vice chair, emphasized the war’s catastrophic effect on Ukrainian children, many of whom have experienced such severe trauma that they have begun to “show signs of premature aging,” Zamecka said.
“Three years ago, my grandson Jack came to me crying, asking what would happen to the children of Ukraine if Russia invaded,” he recalled. “Now, three years later, over half of Ukrainian children have been displaced. Many live with severe anxiety, fear and difficulty concentrating.”
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF, at least 659 children Ukrainian children had been killed and 1,747 more wounded as of November 2024. More than 19,000 children have been forcibly taken to Russia or Russian-controlled territory, with their identities stripped and reunification with their families obstructed.
“This is genocide,” Zamecka declared. “The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their direct involvement in these forced deportations. The world must remember who Putin is — a war criminal.”
Among the speakers was 17-year-old Viktoriia Polusytok, a Ukrainian citizen who fled her home in Lviv for Poland before resettling in the United States two years ago. Now a student at Great Neck South High School, she recalled the terrifying first days of the war.
“I remember the first night when I heard explosions,” Polusytok said. “It was unforgettable. It was 3 in the morning. Everybody was asleep. We were alarmed by air danger, and 10 minutes later, my house started shaking — explosions, one after another. Unfortunately, we lived through several weeks like this before we decided to leave.”
For over two hours, speakers urged Americans not to forget the war’s horrors or fall victim to Russian misinformation. Alan Mindel, HMTC’s chair, spoke passionately about the dangers of rewriting history.
“We know what a war crime is, whether it happens in Bucha or Mariupol,” Mindel said. “We know where the devil resides — whether it’s in Beirut, Berlin, Moscow or Tehran.”
Someone in the crowd shouted, “Or Washington!” which elicited applause, an apparent reference to growing concerns about the federal government’s shifting stance on Ukraine.
President Trump recently claimed that Ukraine “should have never started the war” and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. His words were derided by the speakers, including U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who pushed back against the false equivalence.
“Putin is the dictator, not Zelensky,” Suozzi said. “Zelensky was elected by 73 percent of the people in Ukraine in free and fair elections. Meanwhile, Putin is trying to wipe Ukraine off the map.”
Suozzi, who co-chairs the bipartisan congressional Problem Solvers Caucus, emphasized that supporting Ukraine was not just a moral imperative, but also a strategic necessity for the United States.
“It is so obvious that if Putin goes through Ukraine, he’s going straight into Poland,” Suozzi said. “This is in our national interest. If we don’t help Ukraine fight this war now, we will be fighting even more wars in the future.”
State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who was unable to attend in person, sent a statement that was read by his public affairs director, Leslie Dwyer. In it, Lavine condemned Trump’s comments, warning of the president’s affinity for Putin.
“It is beyond outrageous that Donald Trump falsely accuses President Zelensky of being a dictator,” Lavine wrote. “To be sure, this is a mirror into the darkness of Trump’s soul. His love of Putin knows no bounds, and his betrayal of Ukraine is a betrayal of democracy itself.”
Bernie Furshpan, an HMTC board member and the son of Holocaust survivors from Ukraine and Poland, spoke about the responsibility to take action against oppression.
“We teach thousands of students every month not just about facts and dates, but about the human cost of hatred — the unbearable weight of silence,” Furshpan said. “History is not just something to remember. It is something to act upon.”
As the war in Ukraine drags into its fourth year, many in the audience expressed deep frustration with the growing political division over U.S. support for Ukraine. Some said they feared that shifting attitudes in Washington — particularly among Trump-aligned Republicans — could weaken the nation’s resolve at a critical moment in the conflict.
“This is not the time for the U.S. to turn its back,” Zamecka implored. “We ordinary citizens must speak truth to power, and remind our leaders of the atrocities being committed.”
