Support your favorite college newsroom with a gift! We’re offering the first 200 donors who make a gift of $44 or more a copy of the book published by The D.O. chronicling the men’s basketball team’s 2002-03 season. Donate today and help us win College Media Madness.

Olecsander Taras Colopelnic vividly remembers holding back tears in his Spanish class on Feb. 24, 2022. That morning, Russia had invaded Ukraine after months of rising political tension surrounding Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“It was extremely surreal for me,” said Colopelnic, the president of Syracuse University’s Ukrainian Club. “That very quickly turned into that resolution, that resolve to do everything we can to support Ukraine.”

Last month marked the one year anniversary of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The invasion began with a series of missile attacks in locations near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, with strikes quickly spreading across central and eastern Ukraine.

Colopelnic was born in Sighetu Marmatiei, a city located on the border of Ukraine, and came to America in 2012. He said that between the shock and resolve, sentiments of pain and difficulty blended into feelings of hatred for the invading force.

Recent United Nations Human Rights Office data confirms there were at least 8,000 non-combatant deaths and 13,300 injuries since Russia’s initial invasion, as of Feb. 21. On top of civilian casualties, there are at least 180,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian military casualties, Norwegian Chief of Defence General Eirik Kristoffersen said in a January 2023 casualty update.

The war’s consequences have disproportionately fallen on Ukrainian citizens, said Brian Taylor, a professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs who teaches Russian politics. Data from the Center for Research and Analysis of Migration identifies that crimes of humanity, war crimes and genocidal acts have forced approximately 19 million citizens to flee the country.

Many of these refugees fled to Europe, but others claimed Syracuse and the central New York region as their temporary home.

“Ukraine has become one of the top incoming countries to the United States, and a number of them have settled in Syracuse, which also takes advantage of a historic population of Ukrainians that have lived and worked in the area for many decades now,” said Michael Williams, director of the International Relations program and associate professor with a research focus on international security in 20th-century Europe and Russia.

In March 2022, Mayor Ben Walsh and County Executive Ryan McMahon announced in a joint statement addressed to President Joe Biden that Syracuse and Onondaga County were “ready, willing and able” to welcome and resettle Ukrainian refugees in central New York.

“Communities like Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo historically have had large Ukrainian immigrant and refugee communities,” Taylor said. “There’s a strong Ukrainian community here with their own churches on the West Side, and lots of fundraising I know is going on in the local community to support not only the Ukrainian war effort, but also to support refugees from the war.”

New York has the largest population of Ukrainian people in the country, with over 140,000 people reporting ancestry, according to U.S. Census data from 2019. In 2022, central New York received 780 Ukrainian arrivals, and over the course of the fiscal year, Ukraine was among the top seven countries from which refugees settled in New York.

Many Syracuse organizations, including InterFaith Works of CNY and Catholic Charities of Onondaga County, have offered their support for the Ukrainian community. Events throughout the year since the invasion included a gathering in Feb. 2022 at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and fundraising events.

Events and efforts to support Ukraine have also occurred at SU. Colopelnic said that as president of the Ukrainian club, he’s worked to stay in touch with Ukrainian organizations on other college campuses across the country and in Canada. Among the schools, SU’s support efforts stand out, he said.

The day after the invasion, SU Chancellor Kent Syverud sent a campus-wide email condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and offering resources and services to students from the impacted regions.

Stephanie Zaso | Digital Design Director

Still, though he’s discussed academic and emotional support strategies with SU’s administration, Colopelnic said there’s more to be done.

“I’m not faulting anyone, but even all of us can always do more, right?” Colopelnic said.

SU sophomore Ukrainian Club member Anna Salewycz said the war has taken a toll on her mental health and academic performance over the past year. She said she struggled with feelings of isolation and helplessness.

“It got to a point where I was sobbing multiple times a day and I was like, if I don’t take the break from the news, my own mental health is going to just continue to decline, and I’m not going to do well in school. I need to pass, but I also want to help,” Salewycz said. “It was just all these mixed emotions.”

Salewycz added that being a second-generation Ukranian-American — in addition to in her first year at SU and not having a car on campus at the time — made her feel isolated from the Ukrainian community, which she said she cherished at her home in New Jersey.

“I always knew being Ukrainian was a big part of my life, but I don’t think I realized how big of a hole there was until it wasn’t there,” Salewycz said. “Especially when the war broke out, I just felt very isolated and alone, because there is a Ukrainian community here, but it’s just so different from what I grew up with.”

The feeling of isolation extended to her extracurricular activities when she said her peers joked about “World War Three” before the invasion.

“In that moment, I was just frozen. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do, because it’s like, ‘how can you be so ignorant?’” Salewycz said. “People not having empathy until it became super, super real…made it even more difficult.”

But even before the beginning of the war, Russia and Ukraine had been in a volatile war state, Taylor explained. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, it launched an entire separatist war in Donbas. He said that now, following a year of direct war, both Russia and Ukraine have experienced significant losses in personnel and equipment.

SU students outside the Ukrainian community have also worked to show support by collecting funds and resources for Ukraine on campus. Many students donated to the Ukraine Club’s drive in April 2022 to collect everyday resources — shampoo, toothpaste and medicine — and fill all of the provided boxes to donate to Ukrainian citizens in need.

Patricia Burak, the faculty advisor for the Ukrainian Club who teaches Russian literature in the College of Arts and Sciences, said more students visited the club’s table at this year’s CultureFest in September, just over six months after the invasion, than ever before.

“The students themselves have come closer together. They really want to support each other and to show support for Ukraine in whatever way they can,” Burak said.

Burak said when the university reached out to her and asked how to best help Ukrainian students, she was able to help several students financially throughout the spring semester by consulting with students, academic advisors and university leaders.

In addition to concern for Ukrainian students, Burak said she has worried about Russian students at SU. She emphasized her understanding and belief that no Russian citizen wants this war.

“They’re not happy that their sons and daughters and fathers are being drafted to fight this war. So many people have died, and I would say — on a personal basis — died needlessly,” Burak said.

Williams said that regarding global alliances, the world has mainly been in support of Ukraine and condemned Russia as the violator in the war.

“If you look at most of the U.N. votes, the vast majority of countries in the world will come down and say that Russia was wrong,” Williams said. “But they nevertheless continue to have relationship business.”

Amid the high number of casualties and continued global tension, Taylor said he doesn’t see any quick end to the war, but offered that exhausted militaries on both sides may mean lower intensity going into the second year.

As the war continues and reaches the one year mark, Colopelnic said he’s grateful that so many SU students, faculty and staff have stood with Ukraine through support of SU’s Ukrainian Club.

“We want a bright future for Ukraine for all of us, because really, it’s a beautiful country, and great people and we just want to share that with the rest of the world too,” Colopelnic said.

Colopelnic and Salewycz both emphasized the importance of continuing to advocate for Ukraine, both financially and spiritually.

“The people on the front lines need your prayers. They need your donations,” Salewycz said. “At the end of the day, the war isn’t about me. I’m just a Ukrainian-American that can speak to my experience and dealing with it.”

Published on March 9, 2023 at 2:10 am

Contact Kendall: kaluther@syr.edu