Bay Area Ukrainians Grow Anxious Over Threat Of Russian Invasion Back Home
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) - More than a week after supporters of Ukraine rallied along the waterfront, families are closely watching the situation in their home country as intelligence reports suggest Russia could invade as soon as this week.
"They are afraid that something will happen that you can just won't be ready for that," said Nataliia Goshylyk, a Fulbright scholar at UC Berkeley.
She moved to the East Bay with her husband and children to study at the university. She has a sister, in-laws, and other relatives still in Ukraine. She talks to them daily, sometimes more than once, even with a 10-hour time difference. She says because her family is in the western part of the region, she feels some relief as an attack by Russia would likely be on the country's eastern border.
"People in Ukraine are fearful, they don't know what to expect," said Igor Markov, a Mountain View resident who is a member of the nonprofit Nova Ukraine. He has lived in the Bay Area since 2014.
"They don't know what they can do to prepare and I also feel for them."
Nova Ukraine organized the rally on February 6 to show support for the nation as the situation started escalating this year. Markov says the situation is unstable for his family and others back home. He says the situation should also be concerning for people around the world, including in the Bay Area. As a large exporter of important raw materials including neon used for semiconductors, volatility in the region could have a significant economic impact especially as a chip shortage continues.
"The security of the whole world or the whole world's stability is being decided in Ukraine," said Dmytro Kushneruk, the Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco. He is responsible for representing the government in California and many other western states. "For United States, to help keep stability in Ukraine, in this whole region, means the stability and peace for the world."
Kushneruk said the situation has put Ukrainians at home and abroad on alert since 2014 and the annexation of Crimea by Russia. He says the more than 100,000 Ukrainians in California have closely followed the developments in recent weeks from the media as well as by talking to family still in the country. Lines of communication were strengthened virtually because of the pandemic.
"If people in Russia would see people in Ukraine can be successful democratically they would think why do we have dictator in Russia, we can also have democracy," Kushnerruk said.
Markov said he hopes that U.S. sanctions will be ready if Russia does invade and he would like to see some sanctions take effect proactively to try to deter a potential attack.
"They're safe right now but we don't know what will happen in three, four days, I very much hope they will be safe," Markov said of his family.
Nova Ukraine is planning another rally to show support for the country on Sunday outside the Ferry Building in San Francisco at 1 p.m.
Ukrainians in the Bay Area like Goshylyk are not only unsure what the situation will be like when she hopes to return home in July but also what the next few days could bring while they watch from afar.
"They will come up with the plan that will satisfy both the safety concerns and the legitimacy concerns of all of the parties," she said.