It is 11,500 kilometers from Kiev, but the war in Ukraine was felt in a particular way in a city in the interior of Paraná. “The conflict has had a huge impact on the community, families are suffering as if [os atingidos] were people from here”, says Leopoldo Volanin, 51, director of a school in rural Prudentópolis.
On his return from the Carnival recess, after the military invasion by Moscow, the institution where he works introduced classes on the history and geopolitical relations between Russia and Ukraine in the curriculum.
The 480 students of Colégio Estadual Padre José Orestes Preima follow the news from the front also through social networks. “If my great-great-grandparents hadn’t come from Ukraine, we would be in the middle of the war today,” says Helen Elisa Petel, 15, fourth-generation Ukrainian descendants in Brazil.
Prudentópolis received the nickname of Brazilian Ukraine because 75% of the population, of 52 thousand inhabitants, has ancestry in the Eastern European country. The identification made the mayor, Osnei Stadler (União Brasil), make the municipality available to receive eventual refugees — the Itamaraty made official the protocol for issuing humanitarian visas on Thursday (3).
“It will be an enrichment for all of us”, says Professor Volanin about the Executive’s decision, saying that he is also open to receive any students who flee to Brazil. The school he runs is in the Esperança colony, 15 kilometers from downtown, in the middle of a dirt road that cuts through forests and crops of soybeans, corn, beans and tobacco.
About 100 families live along the Linha Esperança, almost all of them descendants of the Eastern European country. Once a week, students have a Ukrainian language class, and motifs that refer to the culture there, such as pêssankas (hand-painted eggs, offered to protect from harm and wish good wishes) and figures in traditional costumes decorate the walls. The sleeves of the uniforms are decorated in blue and yellow, colors of the flag.
A sign at the entrance to the school reads “Welcome” in Cyrillic, and on a panel in the main hall students wrote “Stop the war” and “We want peace” in the Ukrainian language.
It is estimated that about 600,000 descendants of Ukrainians live in Brazil, 80% of them in Paraná. More than 130 years after the first migratory waves, which date back to 1896, Slavic culture still predominates in the Prudentópolis region.
“When we arrived, we felt that we were in our country, with people speaking Ukrainian. Of course, it is a different situation than the current one, because more than a hundred years have passed. [desde o começo da imigração]but they are guarding our culture, including aspects that have already passed there”, says Vitalii Arshulik, 32.
He is a missionary at First Baptist Church and in 2017 he left the city of Lustsk, near the border with Belarus, for the interior of Paraná. With life established, he says that he warned relatives and friends that his house is open to receive refugees — although he knows that the chances of that happening are slim for now.
“Among my friends and acquaintances, nobody wants to come. They prefer to flee to nearby countries, such as Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Germany. The price of a ticket to Brazil is very high”, he says. His brother Mikhailo, two brothers-in-law and a cousin have already been called up to enlist in the Army, and the rest of the family doesn’t want to abandon them.
Grandson of Ukrainians, the municipal school teacher André Schparyk, 39, has cousins spread across the European country and also says he is willing to shelter possible refugees. “We are Brazilian, born here, but we feel a lot. It’s our family.”
To go beyond the intentions, civil and religious entities, together with the municipal administration, last Thursday (3) created a commission in charge of devising a concrete plan for humanitarian aid to refugees, called Humanitas Brasil Ukraine. The program foresees the creation of a register of people and companies willing to contribute financially or to welcome immigrants.
“There is an expectation about the possible arrival of refugees, and the work of the commission will be directed to the preparation of the organization for this reception”, informed the city hall, which warned the population that all help should be given through the commission, to prevent action of scammers.
Meanwhile, the Russian invasion echoes through radio and TV sets in the colony of Nova Galícia, eight kilometers from the center of Prudentópolis. In the village of about 60 houses, inhabited mainly by the elderly, there is no internet or cell phone signal.
In a modest wooden house painted green and blue, on a gravel street between fields of reforested wood, retired Otilia Maria Koçouski, 78, says she is the great-granddaughter of Ukrainians Anastasia and Basilio. “Every night I put the radio by my bed, take the rosary and pray for peace,” she says. Sometimes she dusts her harmonica and plays Ukrainian songs she learned as a child to brighten the day.
Life there seems to have stopped in time. In the kitchen, the stove is wood-burning, and the walls of the room are decorated with religious icons and rushneks, embroidered cloths that decorate the paintings, striking traits of Ukrainian culture.
“The vivid colors are a tradition of Slavic immigrants in Brazil, as well as walls full of images of saints”, says architect Fábio Domingos. There are still typical houses preserved in rural areas, but as older generations disappear, real estate gives way to modern constructions.
Retired Ambrosio Martinik, 78, grandson of Ukrainians, lives on the same street as Otilia, opposite the small Church of San Miguel — one of the municipality’s 43 Byzantine-style temples, where masses are celebrated in Ukrainian and Portuguese. As the priest appears once a month, his family takes care of the space. “Everywhere they pray [pela paz]here too.”
The Russian invasion aroused a sense of unity in the community. In recent days, members of the folkloric group Vesselka and the Brotherhood of Cossacks have been performing at the venue. “Russia wants to deny the culture, religion and rich traditions of Ukrainians,” Meron Mazur, bishop of the Eparchy of the Immaculate Conception of Prudentópolis, said in a message to the faithful.
