Since Wednesday night (23), when Russian troops began the invasion of Ukraine, members of the Ukrainian community in Paraná have been apprehensively following the news that arrives from Eastern Europe and looking for ways to help friends and relatives who live in the country.
“I have just received news that my relatives in Ukraine are sheltering in the basement of their house and have stocked up on food,” says chemical engineer Rubia Moisa, 48, from Curitiba, who is the granddaughter of Ukrainian Teodoro Dubowski.
His second cousins live in Lviv (also known as Leopolis), a city that despite being located in western Ukraine, also came into a state of attention with the bombing alert sirens that went off on Thursday morning (24).
Faced with the escalation of tensions, members of the Ukrainian community, which has around 600,000 members in Brazil, 80% of them in Paraná, met during the morning with representatives of the Ukrainian embassy to pressure the Brazilian government to officially condemn the Russian invasion.
“The Ukrainian Embassy supports us in this request to the Brazilian government to officially position itself on the Russian invasion, especially the Presidency of the Republic, which has not yet taken a position”, says Felipe Oresten, 33, president of the Ukrainian Society of Brazil.
He reports that in some regions of Ukraine telephone and internet communications are complicated. He also says that the situation is so confusing that Ukrainians themselves do not have access to 100% reliable information.
“The feeling is one of powerlessness. What is happening is a setback in the freedom and sovereignty of a country. We have many friends there and unfortunately we cannot help them. Some are afraid, others are looking for basic groceries such as food and water, and fueling the car,” says Orsten, who says he is constantly receiving images of people fleeing their homes and sirens blaring.
The Ukrainian-Brazilian Central Representation issued a note denouncing the “cruel Russian aggression against Ukraine” and calling on Brazilians to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Residents of Prudentópolis, one of the municipalities with the highest concentration of Ukrainian descendants in Brazil, located in the interior of Paraná, will meet this Thursday afternoon in a demonstration at Praça da Ukraine to express support for the European country. Masses will also be held next Sunday (27) in hundreds of churches of Ukrainian tradition throughout Brazil.
“The atmosphere is one of mourning, everyone is closed and silent. It seems that Russia has invaded Prudentópolis,” says André Zakalugem, 34, a resident of the city about 200 kilometers from Curitiba and a member of the city’s Cossack Brotherhood.
In a long post made this morning on social media, the president of the Ukrainian-Brazilian Central Representation, Vitorio Sorotiuk, recalled the history of Ukraine and its independence from Russia, and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking “to restore the tsarist empire”. “.
“There are many uncertainties about how the conflict will evolve, but what is certain is that Russia has lost the Ukrainians forever. The world must build new forms of coexistence and international relations to avoid war tragedies that could have greater consequences than the two great wars of the 20th century,” said Sorotiuk.
In addition to family and cultural ties, the consequences of the war are already beginning to be felt in trade between Brazil and Ukraine.
Sergio José Maciura, 57, president of the Brazil-Ukraine Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Innovation, and owner of a tourism company based in Curitiba and Kiev, says trade and business meetings between businessmen from both countries have been suspended.
He reports a climate of “total despair” among friends and relatives who live in the European country.
“I have friends who fled and hid in relatives’ homes in the Carpathian Mountains, which are less inhabited regions, and others in Kiev are listening to bombings,” says the businessman, who says he is willing to receive any refugees.
Geography teacher Ana Carolina Zonta, 31, based in Curitiba, has already mobilized to try to bring some relatives to Brazil.
In 2019, she bought six plane tickets to Ukraine, but because of the pandemic, she still hasn’t made the trip. She is now trying to exchange tickets to give shelter to some cousins and uncles who live in a village near Lviv.
“We spoke to them this morning [quinta] and they are very apprehensive. They said that a bomb fell in a nearby region and that they are in need of financial help. They’re getting more and more worried,” says Zonta.
