Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Although the threat was there for some time, the invasion of Russia into Ukraine on Thursday sent shockwaves across communities around the world.
As Russian forces entered Ukraine and carried out airstrikes and shelling across the country, people around Europe, the United States, and even Russia itself openly condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden issued more heavy sanctions against Russia on Thursday with the intent to targeting their financial system. The United States will block assets of large Russian banks, impose export controls aimed at the nation's high-tech needs and sanction its business oligarchs, among other things.
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Meanwhile, for people in the Buffalo region with ties to Ukraine, Thursday's news of the invasion certainly came as a bigtime shock, while also drawing some ire towards Putin and his administration in Moscow.
"There's not much worse on Earth than the news that you're being invaded by Russia, in all honesty. I mean, it's pretty terrifying," said Emil Bandriwsky from the Dnipro Ukrainian Culture Center. "We know that Putin has been lying, he's a criminal. The thing that is shocking, to me, though, most is up until now, we thought he was just, [what they] call a chess player, a tactician. We thought he would try to extract the maximum concessions, because we thought that he was a logical. But last reports, last couple of weeks and so on, he might have actually gone over and he might actually be a madman. He's driven not by calculated gains, but by an ideological fanaticism. In fact, last couple of days, he said some things like Ukraine is not a real country, Ukraine doesn't exist. Ukrainians are Russians, which we are not Russians, and other things that are total distortions of historical facts. So there's a tremendous amount of disinformation. He might be insane."
"When I first found out late last night, I was speechless. I couldn't believe that it had actually happened," said Gregory Hawuczyk from the Ukrainian Club at the University at Buffalo. "We have a group chat between everybody in the Ukrainian club, and everybody couldn't believe it happened. Some of us thought they were just going to go to the eastern part of Ukraine to take it over, and some of us thought it wouldn't have happened at all. All of us were in a state of disbelief, basically."
There are a number of people with Ukrainian descent in the Buffalo community, and many of them still have family ties in Ukraine that are directly in the crosshairs of the Russian invasion.
For Hawuczyk, he says his entire family still lives in Ukraine, which includes his grandmother. While they were taken off guard by what transpired in Ukraine on Thursday, Hawuczyk says his family entrusts their safety with the government of the country.
"They trust their government and they trust in their army, but they're in disbelief that there's an actual war. They're a resilient people," Hawuczyk said. "What we've had to put up with after being under Soviet occupation, under Nazi occupation; we're freedom fighters. We want democracy and freedom."
As for Bohdan Cherniawski, also from the Dnipro Ukrainian Culture Center on Genesee Street in Buffalo, he deals with a lot of humanitarian projects in Ukraine. He has worked with several organizations over the years to try and provide relief efforts to a lot of the refugees, especially from the Russian invasion that happened just eight years ago.
Cherniawski believes it will be a similar situation this time around with refugees fleeing from Ukraine, if not worse.
Although it took some time to be able to connect with his colleagues in Ukraine on Thursday, he said the people he spoke to are scared, but ready to get to work in whatever way possible to help.
"A lot of their staff has gone off to join the territorial defense brigades, others have gone to be with their families and are waiting in places like the subway, and others are stuck in traffic trying to leave the city and get to the west," Cherniawski said.
From across the sea and in Western New York, Cherniawski says the relief efforts his groups are planning we be in coordination with the larger Ukrainian community.
"You can go to UkrainiansOfBuffalo.com, and there you'll see a donation link for aid to Ukraine, and we're going to be trying to set up in two phases. One is the short-term aid for the immediate needs, and the longer term outlook for rehab for soldiers, wounded soldiers and wounded civilians and refugee aid that's going to be needed down the road if this thing continues, which it looks like now it probably will. That's how it's set up here in Buffalo," Cherniawski explained. "We have an excellent track record here in Buffalo of leveraging surplus medical supplies, re-purposing them for aid to Ukraine and sending those. We've sent over 30 tons [of medical supplies] over the last eight years, so bang for the buck. We've been punching above our weight for going on eight years, people have been getting tired, but now that we're under an existential threat, and this is an existential threat, I think there's going to be renewed vigor."
Another way for people to show their support of Ukraine is to not only check out the website, UkrainiansOfBuffalo.com, but also by reaching out to your local elected officials to take action.
"I encourage all of your listeners and you to write letters to Brian Higgins and [Chris Jacobs]... for the U.S. to support Ukraine to the fullest," said Hawuczyk.
As the events develop and unfold in Ukraine, President Biden on Thursday made it clear that U.S. forces are not, and will not be engaged in conflict with Russian forces in the country. However, he says U.S. will defend every inch of NATO territory, which includes bordering countries of Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
While it is understandable for the U.S. to keep ground forces out of Ukraine to avoid the potential for a much larger conflict to ensue with Russia, there is the belief from many that the U.S. needs to do everything they can to punish Putin and the Russian government for their actions on Thursday.
"The United States became rather isolationist in the 30s, and as a result down the road, when a madman came to power in Germany, it costs many thousands of American lives. We didn't have the foresight to get involved when we could have nipped it in the bud, so to speak," Cherniawski said. "The threat to Europe is rather imminent. We're now talking global Tom Clancy-type apocalyptic terms. The same madman, as Emil put it, also has his finger on the nuclear trigger. Just a couple of days ago, his entire country was doing nuclear drills. [Wednesday], he came out and threatened America and all her allies, and said, 'if you get involved, you'll see a response like you've never had before.'
"America needs to nip this in the bud, must support this democracy that has been asking to get into NATO all these decades, and has been stopped and stopped again. They've been a reliable partner. Even when Western citizens from America, Canada couldn't get out of Afghanistan, it was Ukrainian special forces that went in and got them anyway when the others couldn't. The Ukrainians have been a reliable partner. They've been aspiring to be like America, to become a more developed democracy, and they managed to successfully shut off most of the Soviet yoke, but they still had room to grow. Well, growth is not really an option now in the middle of this. So I think we have to stick to birds of a feather and support the democracies of the world, because if might makes right, there's no room for good in this world anymore, is there?"
What actions taken by the U.S. would suffice for local folks in trying to stop any further advancement of Russian troops in Ukraine? As Hawuczyk lays it out, many actions should be taken.
"Firstly, I'd urge for urgent military support. Not necessarily troops on the ground, but I want us to supply them with weapons and everything," Hawuczyk said. "Right now, Ukraine is the fourth-biggest recipient of U.S. aid, military aid right now. If we can up that, it'd be great, because they're basically fighting this battle by themselves. The U.S. is walking a fine line, because nobody expected Putin to invade Ukraine. And if he has the gall to invade Ukraine, what would stop them from creating a nuclear war with the U.S.? ... We want international courts, like Interpol and The Hague (International Court of Justice), to condemn Putin and adopt procedures to sentence Putin for crimes against humanity. ... We also want to impose personal sanctions on Russian politicians, oligarchs, and former European and U.S. politicians who openly support Putin in the media. ... We also want to block Russia and their entry to Swift. It's basically Venmo, it links like KeyBank in the U.S. with a U.K. banking branch so they can trade money with each other. So if we block them out of Swift, they won't be able to have their assets leave anywhere. ... We want harsher sanctions against Russia too. ... We also want airlines, sea cargo and passenger companies to block access to ports for Russian companies as well."