CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in support of Ukraine at the Wrigley Building in downtown Chicago to mark two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Zoryana Podonly was among them. Podonly told WBBM her brother — a Ukrainian-born Chicagoan — died fighting Russia in May 2023. She said if the U.S. is not behind Ukraine, then her brother died for nothing.
“My life will never be the same because I lost the closest person to me in the world,” Podonly said. “The only thing that can make it even worse than what it is already is if it happens to be in vain.”
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also joined the rally. She called on Congress to approve billions of dollars in military support for Ukraine.
“We have to stand resolved, and we must demand of the people who say that they represent us to do what the people want, which is to support and fund Ukraine in this moment of crisis,” Lightfoot said. “We must not waver.”
President Joe Biden has encouraged Congress to approve the aid package.
Similar rallies took place across the world in support of Ukraine, including in London and Berlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in the two years since the invasion, 31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed.
“We don’t know how many of our civilians they killed,” he said. “We don’t.”
Russia has provided few casualty figures. The most recent data from the Defense Ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 deaths, though reports from the U.S. and U.K. officials put that number significantly higher.
A U.S. intelligence report declassified in mid-December 2023 estimated that 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded. If accurate, the figure would represent 87% of the roughly 360,000 troops Russia had before the war, according to the report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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