On February 24, 2022 Russia launched an unprovoked attack on the nation of Ukraine.

Much of the world expected Ukraine would be defeated in a matter of days.

A year later nothing could be further from the truth.

Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com  Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

In Westport and surrounding towns hundreds showed up at rallies in Fairfield county to support the people of Ukraine. Civic leaders, government officials including Senator Blumenthal and Congressman Jim Himes and members of the clergy spoke at those events and encouraged support for the people of Ukraine. Here are some photos of coverage by WestportLocalPress of those events. The pain, fear and worry for their loved ones and homeland, are clearly shown in the faces of those who came to each rally.

Westport has lead a strong fundraising effort including the establishment of a sister city relationship with Lyman, Ukraine. It took less than three weeks to exceed the initial goal of $250,000 to help our sister city deal with the devastation and suffering inflicted upon them by the Russian invaders.

Als' Angels of Westport sponsored a major fundraising event in Fairfield. Yunist Dance schools, which teach traditional Ukrainian dance held a large fundraiser at the Palace in Stamford where their students and instructors performed. Rallies were held in Southport, Darien, Stamford and other towns with a candlelight vigil Weston held shortly after the war began.

A year later support is still strong, however a poll this month The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that a year later there is in fact a softening of support in the U.S. The AP reported "Forty-eight percent say they favor the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, with 29% opposed and 22% saying they’re neither in favor nor opposed. In May 2022, less than three months into the war, 60% of U.S. adults said they were in favor of sending Ukraine weapons". Support worldwide is strong still, with rallies at major European cities including London at Trafalger Square London and in front of the Russian embassy where protestors painted the street with a giant Ukrainian flag. In Parish the Eiffel tower joined the Empire State Building which was lit up with the familiar blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Photos and story by J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com  Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.

As the war drags on, the brutality and barbarism of the Russians has been demonstrated clearly with hundreds of verified reports of torture, rapes and murders of innocent civilians. Mass graves have been uncovered and millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their country or stay and suffer in the cold and dark as Russia targets the Ukrainian electric grid and destroys the homes of hundreds of thousands. Schools, hospitals and high rise apartment buildings lie in ruins.

The war continues to affect other countries as well with poor countries such as those in Africa struggling with shortages of food due to Russian seizure and reduction in shipping of Ukrainian wheat. The Wilson Center reports, "According to Ukraine’s ministry for agriculture, due to the Russian war on that country, approximately 22 million tons of grain are stranded in Ukraine waiting export. The broad implications are clear. As the UN Food and Agriculture Organization notes, Ukraine supplies up to 16% of the world’s corn exports and more than 40% of the world’s sunflower oil. A recent BBC report noted that Egypt and Bangladesh each get about one-quarter of their wheat from Ukraine. Moldova, already suffering from Russian occupation and the war’s fallout, gets over 90% of its wheat from Ukraine."

Some members of Congress have raised objections to U.S. funding in the tens of billions of dollars however President Biden's recent unannounced visit to Kyev, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and his meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda has shown that the U.S. stands strong with it's NATO allies and the European Union and will continue to have Ukraine's back. That support has resulted in tens of thousand of Russians killed and wounded with some estimates as high as two hundred thousand and as many as one-half of Russia's battle tanks destroyed or seized by the Ukraine army.

A Russian paramilitary organization, the Wagner group has an estimated 50,000 mercenaries including criminals from Russian prisons currently fighting in Ukraine. In Russia, it has been estimated that one million Russians of military age have fled the country rather than face conscription.

We will have to see what actions the new Republican majority will take and how that will effect the status of a war which was supposed to last only days, but due to the courage and strength of the Ukrainian military and her people continues with no end in sight.

One thing seems clear; for now the people of Westport will continue to provide aid and support to a nation which has endured terrible pain and suffering and death day in and day out. Westport continues to stand with Ukraine.

Slava Ukrani! Heroyam Slava! Glory To Ukraine! Glory To Heroes!

Photos and story by J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com  Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.