US News

Ukrainian New Yorkers brace for war, compare Putin to Hitler

By
Isabel Vincent and
Dana Kennedy
Published Feb. 22, 2022
Updated Feb. 24, 2022, 12:12 p.m. ET

Members of Ukraine’s New York immigrant community are bracing for war — comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler following his incendiary televised speech Monday and his army’s occupation of eastern Ukraine.

“The community is appalled, as am I,” said Halyna Hryn, president of the US branch of the Shevchenko Society, a nonprofit that promotes scholarly research and public service in New York, which is home to more than 66,000 Ukrainian-Americans.

“It’s reminiscent of Hitler taking over the Sudetenland, and it won’t stop there,” Hryn told The Post. “Everyone wants diplomacy to work but I just don’t see how. Putin is irrational, full of contempt and rage. He is not operating like a diplomat or a world leader.”

Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine have been rising over the last several months, but took on greater urgency on Monday when Putin ordered troops into two rebel-held regions — Luhansk and Donetsk — in the eastern part of the country. He recognized the separatists’ independence in a televised speech in which he also said Ukraine has no right to exist as a sovereign country.

Ukrainians in New York City weighed in on Russian president Vladimir Putin's occupation of the eastern region of their homeland, with some comparing his actions to Adolf Hitler's takeover of the Sudetenland.
Ukrainians in New York City weighed in on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s occupation of the eastern region of their homeland, with some comparing his actions to Adolf Hitler’s takeover of the Sudetenland. NY Post photo composite

Russia has been backing an armed rebellion in the region since 2014. More than 14,000 people have died in the conflict.

Jason Birchard — owner of the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka, in Manhattan's Little Ukraine area of the East Village — told The Post: "[The US] should have imposed sanctions earlier. I have a feeling that this is not the end of it."
Jason Birchard — owner of the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka, in the East Village’s Little Ukraine — told The Post: “[The US] should have imposed sanctions earlier. I have a feeling that this is not the end of it.” Matthew McDermott
On Monday, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered troops into two rebel-held regions — Luhansk and Donetsk — in the eastern part of Ukraine.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into two rebel-held regions — Luhansk and Donetsk — in the eastern part of Ukraine. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“Putin really revealed himself for the first time publicly in that speech, which was a real shocker,” Hryn told The Post, adding that her group is helping organize support, including medical supplies, for her homeland if war breaks out. “Ukraine will fight but where does this stop? Will Putin take over the Baltic states next?”

Putin has amassed more than 150,000 Russian troops at the Russian border of Ukraine since last year. “This began on the 90th day of Biden’s presidency and no one was really paying attention,” said Hryn. “Nobody stopped Putin a year ago and now it’s alarming that he had no compunction about stating that Ukraine should not exist at all.”

Halyna Hryn, president of the US branch of the Shevchenko Society, called Putin "irrational, full of contempt and rage. He is not operating like a ... world leader."
Halyna Hryn, president of the US branch of the Shevchenko Society, called Putin “irrational, full of contempt and rage. He is not operating like a … world leader.” Justin Knight

“There is a huge political power play going on right now between Russia, Ukraine, European countries and the US and has everything to do with oil and energy. It’s a dangerous time,” said Julian Michael, a Manhattan-based numerologist whose grandfather, Julian Revay, was the Prime Minister of the Carpathian district of Ukraine in 1939 when it briefly broke free of the USSR. 

Jason Birchard, a third-generation owner of Veselka, a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village, told The Post that he and his family have been watching the buildup of tensions for months, and now believe that Putin has gone too far by sending troops to Eastern Ukraine.

“He forgot that Ukraine is a sovereign country,” said Birchard, whose restaurant is in the heart of a community where thousands of his homeland’s immigrants first settled in the nineteenth century. Although many Ukrainian businesses have shuttered in recent years, the area, known as Little Ukraine, is still home to St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Museum.

Protesters gathered outside the Russian embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Moscow's decision to formally recognize two Russian-backed regions of eastern Ukraine as independent.
Protesters gathered outside the Russian embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Moscow’s decision to formally recognize two Russian-backed regions of eastern Ukraine as independent. REUTERS
Protesters waved Ukrainian national and EU flags on Feb. 22.
Protesters waved Ukrainian national and EU flags on Feb. 22. REUTERS

“I am very saddened,” Birchard said “I wish there was something more that we could do. [The US] should have imposed sanctions earlier. I have a feeling that this is not the end of it.”

Vitalii Desiatnychenko agreed. A restaurant manager, he immigrated to the US in 2012, and returned last month to visit family and friends in Ukraine. He told The Post that his parents, still there, are buying extra stores of food and stocking up on gasoline as they brace themselves for the worst.

Vitalii Desiatnychenko, a manager at Veselka, immigrated to the US from Ukraine in 2012, fears the situation turning into World War III.
Vitalii Desiatnychenko, a manager at Veselka, immigrated to the US from Ukraine in 2012, fears the situation turning into World War III. Matthew McDermott

“This situation is not new to us,” Desiatnychenko said. “I think it’s just wrong by default to take something that does not belong to you. Ukraine has been on the map of Europe for 30 years as an independent country.

“I feel like Putin might think of himself as a Hitler to reunite the Soviet Union, just to become the most powerful country in the world. I hope we don’t have a World War III over this.”