A rally in Parma, Ohio in support of Ukraine. (Photo by Marilou Johanek for the Ohio Capital Journal.)
It was standing room only at a weekend rally in Parma, Ohio, home to the largest Ukrainian American population in the state. The huge parish hall of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral was packed with hundreds of citizens of Ukrainian descent grappling with the unthinkable: A Russia-aligned America voting against democratic Ukraine at the U.N. and the public humiliation of its president at an appalling White House beat-down. They clutched Ukrainian flags and listened to fiery political speeches from local, state, and federal leaders.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, co-chair and co-founder of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, spoke passionately about Americans standing firm in their support of the Eastern European country courageously defending democracy (against barbaric Russian aggression) even as she acknowledged her audience may feel “weak” or “depressed” about “what happened recently over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”
In an earlier statement, the Toledo Democrat blasted the Friday Oval Office belittlement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by a condescending Donald Trump and insulting J.D. Vance:
“Lots of congratulatory vodka is being spilled in Communist Russia as Dictator Vladimir Putin and his henchmen celebrate his illegal invasion of a sovereign and democratic European nation. Ganging up on President Zelenskyy, as Mr. Trump, a 5-time draft dodger, yelled at Ukraine’s valiant President for Liberty that he should concede security for mineral rights. Mr. Vance, who recently declared, ‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine,’ ambushed President Zelenskyy with practiced taunts. Today, the Statue of Liberty hangs her head in shame.”
The choreographed set-up of a visiting head of state during a routine photo-op in the White House — customarily a brief interlude of performative statesmanship with smiling leaders fielding a few media questions — began decently but quickly devolved into a disgusting pile-on of Zelenskyy. The weary democratic ally, in the fourth year of a devastating and unprovoked war with Russia, seemed disorientated at first. He attempted to placate the Putin-loving Trump and his circus monkey hurling “practiced taunts.”
But Zelenskyy, who is not fluent in English, couldn’t disarm incoming hostility with fact-based diplomacy. Even his appearance was ridiculed as Vance chortled. Since the war began, Zelenskyy has regularly worn standard-issue field uniforms in solidarity with his troops. A right-wing outlet asked Zelenskyy if he owned a suit. Streaming the mockery to giddy Muscovites back home was a Russian state-owned news agency (TASS) allowed in the Oval over the prohibited Associated Press and Reuters.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said a shaken Dr. George Jaskiw, president of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 50 groups in the state with the sixth biggest community of Ukrainian Americans in the country. “I can’t get into the minds of anybody in that room, but I’m just stunned at how it began so cordially and changed so rapidly. I can’t explain that.”
Jaskiw hopes cooler heads prevail going forward and “both President Trump and President Zelinsky come to see there’s a great deal of common ground and interests that go beyond just the transaction for rare earth minerals. A prosperous and secure Ukraine will be good for the security and prosperity of the U.S.”
But the psychiatrist and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland braces for what may be. In one week, the U.S. joined Russia in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning Moscow for the Ukraine war and the leader of the free world denigrated “one of the world’s most staunch defenders of democracy” as cameras rolled. Ohio Republicans in Congress posted approvingly.
Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4). “Thank you President Trump and VP Vance for standing up for America!” Rep. Michael Rulli (OH-6). “Ukraine has taken hundreds of billions of dollars of our money and never even said thank you.” (untrue on both counts) Rep. Warren Davison (OH-8). Zelenskyy is a “rude, entitled tyrant.” (he’s a popular democratically elected leader) Sen. Bernie Moreno. “Finally we have a president who will speak the TRUTH and stand up against Washington’s endless wars.” (by ceding Ukraine to Russia?) Sen. Jon Husted. “President Zelenskyy did not help himself with the comments he made.”
Decades-old alliances built on shared democratic principles and values can no longer bank on the United States to have their backs when Trump trusts murderous dictators on the march and maligns allied democracies. Yet many in Ohio’s conservative Ukrainian diaspora still view the president as a savvy, unorthodox negotiator with an unusual style that gets results. “We’ll see,” said a clearly worried Jaskiw.
“With the Russian Federation there is no trust. There is only verify and have the strength to back it up. Putin wants to rewrite the world order to his favor. Any peace with Ukraine without security guarantees enforced by a credible deterrent will be useless. Putin will go back. He will rebuild. He will rearm and start again. Without security buttressed by the power of the U.S. military Putin will not be deterred.”
“If the dream of the Russian administration — that the U.S. abandons Ukraine — comes true,” Jaskiw fears, “it will be a great loss to our security, it will attenuate our prosperity and it will certainly change the minds of Europe and our allies in the east, like Japan and Taiwan, about our diplomacy, about our interests, about our credibility.” Which has already been blown by a tag-team of mendacious nihilists on the wrong side of history.
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