MINNEAPOLIS — One night last August, the Lowry Avenue Bridge glowed blue and yellow to mark the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the former Soviet Union. But that nation has struggled to truly break free from its Russian neighbors, and now faces a major crisis.
There are at least 10,000 Russian troops standing at the Ukrainian border waiting for orders to launch an invasion. Minnesotans with ties to Ukraine are on edge.
"I hope it’s just a scare tactic on Russia’s part more than anything else," Kenneth Matlashewski, a Twin Cities teacher, told KARE.
"These people don’t need to live through another war."
Matlashewski lived and worked as an English teacher in 1993 in Donetsk. That area is part of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine where government military forces have battled Russians and rebels backed by Russia for the past seven years.
"Everyone is in arms. They’re preparing. They don’t want their country taken over again by Soviets."
Stefan Iwaskewycz, a Twin Cities graphic designer, photographer and musician, said his friends and relatives in Ukraine are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
"We’re all living with background anxiety because of the pandemic. Imagine adding the fear of a Russian invasion, especially knowing what the history has been," Iwakewycz, who last lived in Ukraine in 2009, told KARE.
Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has worked on many levels to destabilize Ukraine's economy and fledgling democracy.
Iwakewycz says he cringes at the term "Russian separatists" to describe the rebels fighting to merge eastern Ukraine with Russia. He said before Vladimir Putin seized Crimea reliable polling agencies found little support for that region to break apart from Ukraine and join Russia.
He also doesn't buy Putin's pretext for intervention in Ukraine, that Russians' language and culture is under threat.
"Russian people in Ukraine have even more resources than Latinos in America do," Iwakewycz explained. "They have primetime television, radio stations, whole cities where the majority of people communicate in Russian on the street."
Senator Amy Klobuchar traveled to the capital city of Kyiv Monday, as part of a bipartisan delegation, to meet with Ukrainian leaders. She said they wanted to show that American politicians are on the same page when it comes to Ukraine.
"We wanted to make clear to Vladimir Putin that we have a united front in America. It didn’t matter if people were conservative Republicans or liberal Democrats, we stand together for democracy, we stand together for Ukraine."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a three-day mission to Europe, which will culminate with talks in Geneva with his Russian counterpart. Blinken has already indicated that the U.S. won't agree to Putin's demands that Ukraine be barred from joining NATA or the European Union.
"Secretary of State Blinken and many others have been working with Germany and France and Canada, and allies and democracies across the world," Sen. Klobuchar remarked.
She said an invasion would be met with severe sanctions from the US and allies that can make life harder on the Russian people, and apply pressure on their leader.
"One of the most important things that we emphasized with the Ukrainians is that the U.S. is in a unique position to help Ukraine because of our relationships with our allies."
By some estimates there are 17,000 people of Ukrainian descent living in Minnesota. The thriving Twin Cities Ukrainian community centered in northeast Minneapolis incudes a well-known deli, several churches and the Ukrainian American Community Center.
Only four years ago, Matlashewski took his Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, a group of 20 young folk dancers, and their families to an international Ukrainian dance festival in the city of Lviv.
"For some of the kids, it was their first time going to Ukraine. And a lot of the kids I teach have moved from Ukraine to the U.S. and went back to dance for their grandparents who’d never seen them dance before."
Ukraine's image has been under attack for nearly a decade, in part due to Russian efforts in social media.
Then-President Donald Trump's first impeachment case involved alleged attempt to coerce Ukrainian leaders to announce they were investigating Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.