Posted on 07/27/2014 7:00:02 PM PDT by No One Special
NEW BRITAIN — More than 20 people showed up Saturday as Maidan United, a nonprofit solidarity organization between Polish and Ukrainian friends, held a fundraiser in Falcon Field Saturday to benefit victims of violence in Ukraine.
The event, which featured an appearance by Yulia Marushevska, a young Ukrainian woman who created the viral YouTube video “I am a Ukrainian” in which she spoke her support of the protestors in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. There was also Polish and Ukrainian beer and food, cotton candy, face painting, a bouncy house, and a dunk tank with one of the group’s members wearing a Vladimir Putin mask.
Zvinka Wolynetz from Modni, a private vendor from New York, sold handcrafted and Ukrainian jewelry at the Pol-Uki Festival. Maidan United, meanwhile, sold T-shirts, bracelets and key chains with their logo — a hand with Ukrainian blue and yellow colors. Yura Burkovskiy, who manned the T-shirt booth, said 100 percent of the proceeds will go to transporting injured people safely from Ukraine to the U.S. to receive medical care.
“Ukrainian hospitals lack the proper equipment and supplies, and it costs money to get treatment which many lack the resources to afford,” he said. “We have already raised $10,000 and brought three people over.” Sofia Dumansky, president of Maidan, said the organization was formed March 14 by a group of friends who wanted to make a difference. They have since grown to 10 members and meet every Friday at 8:30 p.m. at the Ukrainian National Home at 961 Wethersfield Ave, Hartford. Those interested in joining, she said, are evaluated by the group after sitting in on five meetings.
“One day, when we were watching everything that was going on, we decided we couldn’t sit around anymore and do nothing,” she said. “We’ll keep going until the war is over.”
Sasha Yasnikovsky said the group had personally met a man named Volodyi, who they had helped to bring to the U.S. for care.
“The guy had been shot in the face by a sniper,” he said. “He needed reconstructive surgery on his jaw and esophagus and was partially paralyzed. He was going to die if we didn’t get him help and now he gets to live a normal life. It’s the best feeling ever to know that you made something like that possible with something you did. Others have lost their lives, and we want to be able to say that their deaths weren’t in vain.”
Myron Kolinsky and Julie Nesteruk, from Wethersfield, both came to the event to support friends who are members of Maidan United.
“The situation going on in Ukraine has created a lot of awareness about the struggle for peace, independence and democracy,” said Nesteruk.
“Putin said the worst thing that happened in the 20th century was the dismantling of the Soviet Union, he’s never gotten over it,” said Kolinsky. “Russia annexed Crimea under the pretense of creating a better life for the ethnic Russians, a conflict imposed by the Russian government. A lot of the Russians living in Ukraine were re-settled there by the Soviets when Stalin was starving the people of Ukraine.”
For more information about Maidan United, call (860) 348-3753 or visit maidanunited.org or email info@maidanunited.org or connect on Facebook at facebook.com/maidanunited.
Putin’s undeclared war on Ukraine is part of an ongoing effort to restore the Russian empire. His supporters here think it’s legit for Putin to rule Ukraine because they don’t like Obama.
That doesn’t make sense.
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