Friday will mark one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A forum at Quinnipiac University on Saturday, called “Passing the One-Year-Mark,” will examine the widespread repercussions.
Experts will discuss how the war has changed Ukraine, America and even Connecticut.
For many, the ongoing war in Ukraine hardly feels halfway around the world.
“My parents were born in Ukraine. We have family in Ukraine,” Myron Melnyk of Ukrainian American Veterans POST 33 said.
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Melnyk and Carl Harvey are members of the Ukrainian American Veterans, a group of veterans with ties to Ukraine that take on humanitarian projects. They both have family members in the invaded region, and they have been addressing the conflict from Connecticut.
“Since the war started, we've also been at the local level, started a humanitarian aid program, where we're getting medical supplies and equipment from hospitals, doctors, offices, and homes, and also humanitarian aid items such as food,” Carl R. Harvey, Ukrainian American Veterans POST 33 commander, said.
They traveled to Ukraine in 2016 and 2018. Using connections formed on those trips, they are sending supplies to a Ukrainian church and a veterans’ hospital.
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“We had an opportunity to see some of the soldiers that were being treated there,” Melnyk said. “So that is really the other side of our humanitarian aid to provide medical supplies and equipment to the hospital, which is overwhelmed now, not only by military casualties, but civilian casualties.”
Harvey and Melnyk are just two speakers that will offer their perspectives at the forum.
“We will have a panel of experts, of ambassadors, country representatives, and policy think tank leaders, coming here to talk about Ukraine, and the one-year anniversary, and what that means for the Ukrainians, for Europe, and for the global community,” Professor Christopher Ball, Quinnipiac University’s Central European Institute director, said.
The general public is invited to join the free discussion.
“Since Russia's invasion, a lot has happened,” Ball said.
Ball, who is organizing the forum, says it will look beyond the military angle.
“We're really looking at the humanitarian side of what's happening, the human life cost and what it's implying for the region, not just the Ukrainians that are displaced within their own country, but the some eight million that are now being displaced out of Ukraine,” he said.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, who has visited Ukraine multiple times since the start of the conflict, will share his thoughts on what he sees as America’s best course of action going forward.
“The free world faces that challenge right now in Russia, this genocidal brutal invasion of Ukraine,” Blumenthal told NBC Connecticut. “They don't want our troops on the ground, and we shouldn't provide them. But we do need to provide everything we would give our own troops on the ground in the way of military aid and humanitarian assistance, and the United States resolve needs to be maintained on this first-year anniversary.”
Connecticut is also playing a role as the war continues to unfold.
“We want to hear what's happening in Connecticut, how are we accepting and helping refugees here,” Ball said.
The forum will highlight the state’s efforts to help refugees get settled. Some will speak about fleeing - poignant conversations about a war impacting the world, but hitting close to home for some.
“It's personal, this war is a personal engagement here,” Melnyk said. “It's a tragedy for millions of people in Ukraine, and we feel it very directly.”
“Passing the One-Year Mark: How the Ukrainian Displacement Crisis Shapes European and American Policy” will take place at Quinnipiac University’s Mt. Carmel Auditorium, CCE 101, on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public. You can find more details online.
