Rash: ‘Between both worlds,’ Ukrainians in Minnesota contribute to each

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On Thursday in Istanbul, presidents presiding over the first direct Russia-Ukraine talks since 2022 include Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s participation is uncertain, and just maybe America’s Donald Trump will detour from the Mideast in a bid for peace in Eastern Europe.

The words of these world leaders will matter to war-weary citizens in the region and beyond, including Minnesota and other heartland havens hosting displaced Ukrainians. Some of the displaced gathered at the Ukrainian American Community Center in northeast Minneapolis last week to hear from Serhiy Koledov, the consul general of Ukraine in Chicago.

While their stories were unique, they were united in appreciation of America, their desire to give back to the communities that took them in, and their warning that waning Western support would only embolden Russian revanchism.

“I’m proud of Ukrainians who live here,” Koledov said in an interview after speaking at a Global Minnesota event, whose capacity crowd reflected the reservoir of resolve many Minnesotans continue to have for the beleaguered country.

Ukrainians, continued Koledov, “are an integral part of Minnesota society” while concurrently backing their homeland.

Which makes it integral to continue this state’s strong support of local Ukrainians and by extension their homeland.

“It’s important to support Ukrainians who are here because they are actively interested in supporting Minnesota,” Maria Doan, the center’s advocacy director, said as she described Ukrainians’ role in working and supporting the state’s economy by “being contributing members of society” and, in a sentiment stressed by other local Ukrainians, “doing everything by the book” regarding refugee or immigration status.

Part of this, Doan said, is “so they can support their families here and also their families back home.”

Family — particularly children — was a recurring theme in conversations with local Ukrainians. “I want my child to be safe and eliminate all the possible risks,” said Iryna Petrus, speaking of her daughter, who turns 8 this month. Describing Minnesota as a “family state,” Petrus, the center’s career development support specialist, said that “we feel safe here, and also very welcomed.”

In Ukraine, conversely, enduring allied aid is needed as a “shield for civilians,” said Tetiana Chukhniai, who came from Wisconsin to hear the consul general and confer with fellow Ukrainians. “I feel kind of ashamed I’m not there, but I feel responsibility for my little son — he’s 6 years old.” U.S. military support is essential, Chukhniai said. “Otherwise, if they would stop this, we would die. Simply our people would die out on the streets. If my dad would go buy bread, he couldn’t come back home because he would be dead; his head would be on one side of the street and his legs would be on another.”

The grisly vision is backed by facts and searing images from the carnage rained down by drones and missiles indiscriminately killing civilians in what should be considered Russian war crimes.

The shame, explained Chukhniai, can come “a little bit from both sides.” So it can sometimes leave local Ukrainians “between both worlds. We try to do our best. We try to show as much as we can to others that we are good people.”

That’s evident in everyday hard work and integration in Minnesota’s society and economy. “I want U.S. citizens to understand and know that their respect makes us feel very grateful, and we want to do more,” said Petrus. Work status and initial language barriers for some can mean “we cannot contribute what we want,” she said. So sometimes giving back comes in more elemental ways, like a blood drive for donations to Children’s Minnesota Hospital, which the community now plans on doing twice a year.

The medical effort extends from their new home front to the front lines back in Ukraine. “Everyone who went back to Ukraine or to Poland tried to take some medicine, some masks, some helmets,” said Koledov, who expressed his thanks not just to America and other allies but “to the Ukrainian diaspora too.”

Many in Minnesota’s diaspora yearn to return someday. “Most of my life was in Ukraine, right? So my heart is over there,” said Petrus. “I’m so empowered by how Ukraine is responding to this war and conflict that it is my need to be back. It’s my need to rebuild the country; it’s in my heart.”

But before Petrus and others return there must be safety — which each suggested is security for the West and the U.S. as well.

“I would like Americans to know that we are thankful we are here, and we truly do not want this lesson to be repeated anywhere,” said Petrus. “War all around the world repeats because of a lack of respect and very poor relationships.”

It’s “crucial to support Ukraine,” said Doan, “because Ukraine is fighting the war not just for its own survival but for the values of democracy, of Western values of freedom of speech, of all the freedoms we’re lucky to have in the United States.

“Because Ukraine is what stands between Russia and the rest of Europe. So if Ukraine is not successful in fending off the Russian invasion, then the Baltic states and Poland are next on the hit-list of Putin.” And that, she concluded by referencing NATO’s mutual-defense mechanism, “would mean that Article 5 would be invoked and that American troops would have to come in.”

Koledov closed the interview by saying his message to his countrymen and women would be: “Stay strong.” Once again thanking both “officials and ordinary people of Minnesota,” he said of Minnesota-based Ukrainians: “I can’t say they’re happy, but they say it is a second motherland.”