The historic country of Ukraine sits 5,719 miles away. This prominent European country is now at war with one of the world\u2019s superpowers, Russia. In the week before the first hostilities occurred, students here met five Ukrainians on a mission. On February 16, 2022, five delegates representing the country of Ukraine from\u00a0an\u00a0organization called Global Ties visited our school\u00a0with the hope of providing a clearer picture of the current events happening in their home country to the student body.
\nThe country of Ukraine has had its independence from Russia for only around thirty years. Before then, the country was considered a part of the then Soviet Union. Doing away with dictatorship, the newly independent country sought to form a more equal democracy for its government. Today, that democracy is threatened by corruption, incursion, and invasion.
\nThe five guests seemed relaxed and happy to visit with students, but their passionate love for their country quickly emerged. \u201cWe are under incursion and invasion from the Russian Federation,\u201d said Ms. Olha Melnyk, an assistant head for an Anti-Corruption Committee in Ukraine. \u201cOur military is active and considering various scenarios for the development of these events.\u201d With that threat looming over a divided country, the citizens of Ukraine continue to split into two different sides. One side is considered to be separatists, wanting to separate from Ukraine and rejoin Russia. On the other side, there are people wanting to defend their home country and maintain their independence. On this particular side, there is a call to arms.
\n\u201cThere is a volunteer movement right now that is organized to support our army,\u201d said Ms. Melnyk. Since Ukraine\u2019s funding for its army is significantly less than a country like the United States, other sources are looked into for the funding. Ms. Melnyk said, \u201cThe citizens have to co-finance our armed forces. Also, we receive great help from our international partners.\u201d
\nA large factor driving this opposition to the Russian invasion is the fear of returning to life before Ukrainian independence. \u201cIn the Soviet Union,\u201d said Mr. Radym Huban, \u201cPeople could not practice their own religion. Priests were used as informants to report people who worshipped.\u201d
\nBesides religious persecution, under the Soviet Union, children were indoctrinated from a young age to join the Communist Party. Ms. Melnyk said, \u201cWhen you were small, you joined this political club\u2026and then you were enlisted into the Communist Party.\u201d Refusal to join the Communist Party had consequences. A person could be blacklisted from jobs that involved important decision-making and would restrict people to other jobs in other areas that wouldn\u2019t affect day-to-day life.
\nSince gaining its independence from Russia, Ukraine has made great strides to become an equal democracy. Ms. Ulyana Pak, a city councilor, said, \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen in one day. It took many years to transform our lives into a democratic [one]. We came here to learn anti-corruption. We are going to change, experience, and apply the information that we get here. We are on our way to an uncorrupted democracy.\u201d
\nEven though Ukraine has gained its independence, the fight to maintain it still goes on. However, the panel of Ukrainian delegates showed that the people of Ukraine will not go down without a fight. Ms. Melnyk said, \u201cWe will not give up our native land\u2026we will be fighting for our families and our homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: On February 26, we emailed Ulyana Pak, one of the people who visited Catholic High. She responded the next day:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The historic country of Ukraine sits 5,719 miles away. This prominent European country is now at war with one of the world\u2019s superpowers, Russia. In the week before the first hostilities occurred, students here met five Ukrainians on a mission. On February 16, 2022, five delegates representing the country of Ukraine from\u00a0an\u00a0organization called Global Ties…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":9008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/liftoffnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Imports-1-of-1-4.jpeg?fit=4708%2C3014&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xfZw-2lh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9007"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9016,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions\/9016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}