BERLIN, Conn. — Friday marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and while the battle rages on, President Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday.
Local Ukrainians and experts spoke about the ongoing efforts to provide aid to the region.
Life is but a dream. It’s fleeting, uncertain, but one may say it’s what we make of it.
As Olena Balatsko teaches her son the basis of this song, she, too, knows what that means as their family fled from Western Ukraine in June of last year.
They are making a tidy apartment in Berlin their home as the Russian war in Ukraine rages on almost one year later, but without a doubt, she says she misses home.
“So, of course, I miss my house, my relatives who stayed there because there are parents who stayed at home, there is a sister with children who could not come here because of their family reasons because they also have responsibilities to their old parents, and here in peace we ask we pray to God that the war will end soon and we will all be able to see each other as we once did to sit down at the table to have dinner and laugh together because it has not happened for a long time,” said Olena Balatsko.
With the war persisting, President Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv on Monday, where he met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I am impressed by today's visit, it was unexpectedly pleasant and it is a tangible great support of America, in particular the president, he was not afraid to cross the border of Ukraine where military operations are taking place, this is very brave on his part and great support for Ukraine,” said Balatsko.
University of New Haven Professor Dr. Matthew Schimdt who’s currently in Kyiv echoes this.
“Every Ukranian I spoke to was bursting with pride and I have to say, as was I as an American,” said Dr. Matthew Schimdt.
After his transatlantic flight on air force one, the White House said President Biden spent 10 hours on a train making the trip from Poland into Ukraine.
“They know that a tough fight is coming in a few days and in a few weeks and to have the President of the United States show up in the middle of the war, in the middle of their capital was just an extraordinary feeling,” said Dr. Schimdt.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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