A crowd of roughly 400 gathered last Sunday in front of the Killenworth mansion in Glen Cove to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Owned by Russia, Killenworth is used as a retreat by diplomats and their families, although it was not clear if anyone was there on Sunday.
People came from all over Long Island, and some came from as far away as New Jersey, to peacefully condemn the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. They were also there in solidarity, expressing support for the Ukrainian people. For two hours, what was referred to as a “vigil” included emotional speeches by elected leaders and Ukrainian-Americans.
The crowd was diverse, with some waving Ukrainian flags and holding sunflowers, which have become a symbol of the Ukrainian struggle. Others raised signs bearing slogans like “Stop the Bloodshed” and “Putin is a Murderer,” in English and Ukrainian. Many had yellow tape around their arms, a show of support for the citizen-soldiers fighting for the country’s safety and democracy.
“We just want peace — we are a peaceful people,” said a Ukrainian woman who asked not to be identified for fear of endangering her family in their home country. “We just want to live, to raise our kids, like here, like everyone.”
Several children held up signs.
“Now we have children who are shivering in shelters, who are fleeing for their lives, who are scared,” one of the vigil organizers, Jolanta Zamecka, said. “We stand here in solidarity, for the children.”
Zamecka, who is of Polish descent, is a vice chair of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, in Glen Cove. The idea of a vigil, she said, grew out of a conversation she had had with her grandson before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. The boy asked what would happen to the children in Ukraine if Putin invaded. When the invasion began a few days later, she knew she had to do something, but wasn’t sure what.
She said she spoke to a friend, Fred Nielsen, a retired Marine Corps major and a civic leader in Glen Cove, who told her, “You need to stop asking, ‘What can I do?’ and start asking yourself, ‘What can I do?’” And thus, the idea for the rally was born.
The event began with Zamecka and Nielsen leading a moment of silence for the people of Ukraine. Then the many Ukrainian-American attendees led the crowd in singing the country’s national anthem.
Father Varcilio Basil Salkovski, of St. Josephat’s Monastery in Lattingtown, led the gathering in prayer in Ukrainian and English. “For the millennium history of Christianity and Ukraine, we have withheld many, many invaders, many invasions from our neighbor from the East,” Salkovski said. “And once more … we will withstand.”
Gaitley Stevenson-Matthews, a former Glen Cove councilman, led the crowd in singing an updated version of “We Are Standing Here Together,” which was sung during the civil rights movement. Some of the words were changed to refer to the crisis in Ukraine.
The next speaker was Mitya Wycoff, a Jewish Ukrainian-American Holocaust survivor from Glen Cove. He recounted his experiences in a concentration camp, where he was one of only 127 survivors of the 54,000 who were imprisoned there.
“We can see today the suffering in our motherland, where I grew up, went to university,” Wycoff said. “These are murderers coming to Ukraine, to take the lives of the Ukrainian people.”
He made it clear that he was not condemning any ethnic or cultural group. “We’re not against nationalities,” Wycoff said. “We’re against the war.”
When U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi spoke, he said “good morning” in Ukrainian. He asked that everyone be peacemakers, and to stay unified.
“We can’t let this become cause for division, both here in the United States and with our allies in NATO,” Suozzi said.
County Legislator Joshua Lafazan, a grandson of a Holocaust survivor, condemned Putin’s claims that Ukraine is run by Nazis. “I’d like to remind Putin that Ukraine is the only country in Europe with a Jewish prime minister and Jewish president,” Lafazan said.
Volodymyr Tsyalkovsky, a communications liaison for Ukrainian Americans of Long Island, spoke of Ukraine’s history, and how Putin’s attempt to destroy the country has failed to destroy its people.
“There have been many invasions in the history of Ukraine — they’ve tried to divide and weaken us,” Tsyalkovsky said, “but Ukraine has never been as strong as it is today.”
When State Assemblyman Charles Lavine spoke, he reminded the attendees that the battle against authoritarianism does not stop at the Ukrainian border.
“I was reminded of when Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, called on world leaders to stop the Italian invasion of Ethiopia,” Lavine said. “He told them, ‘It’s us today, it’s you tomorrow.’”
