For the 51st Saturday since Russia invaded Ukraine one year ago, Vancouver resident Andrey Shulik stood on the Interstate 205 bridge pedestrian path with a Ukrainian flag in hand, rallying in support of his home country.
Shulik was at work in Portland when he first heard news of the invasion last February. “Everyone was so shocked,” he said. He left work early, wasting no time in organizing protests through Facebook with the local Ukrainian community.
On March 5, 2022, protesters met for the first time on the I-205 bridge. Nearly one year later, the rallies are still going strong.
About 30 to 60 protesters come to the bridge each week — Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians, Democrats and Republicans, Shulik said. The only missed Saturday was Christmas Eve, when the roads were too icy. The protesters vow to show up every week until Russian troops have left Ukraine.
“Our job here is to remind and to make sure that this conflict, this war, and genocidal war, does not go off the top of the news,” Shulik said. “The sooner Ukrainians win this war, the sooner we all can go back to our normal lives.”
Saturday’s rally was par for the course for Shulik. The sun shined down on about two dozen protesters as they planted Ukrainian and American flags across the bridge. They held signs and waved at passing vehicles, some of which honked back in support.
Shulik’s daughter, Tanya Shulik, stood among the crowd with a sign reading, “The war is not over.” She comes to the bridge rally every week that she’s able to, she said.
“My parents are Ukrainian immigrants. And if they have to fight for their freedom, I’m definitely gonna come because freedom is just a given thing that everyone should have,” Tanya Shulik said. “This is happening in real time, and it is happening to everyone.”
Kirill Perian, a co-organizer of the rallies, said Saturday traffic makes the bridge a good spot to remind people that Ukraine is still in need of arms, food, medical supplies and money.
Perian was born in Khabarovsk, Russia, a sister city of Portland. “I’m like three-quarters Russian, a quarter Ukrainian,” she said. “So I feel like one of my ancestors is attacking others, and I don’t agree with that.”
After a year of war, there’s no real end to the conflict in sight, NPR reported last week. Ukrainian resistance to Russia has been stronger than originally anticipated, and neither Russian leader Vladimir Putin nor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows signs of backing down.
For Shulik, Ukraine’s resilience isn’t a surprise.
“It is clear that the United States and European partners underestimated Ukrainians and overestimated Russians as far as the military ability,” Shulik said. “Just because they’re a big country doesn’t mean that they can do everything they want.”
Another main goal of the weekly rallies is to thank the U.S. for its support of Ukraine, he added.
“Countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, France, Germany and several dozens of other countries, they show that they really stand by and they understand what freedom is,” Shulik said.
Portland resident Tad Everhart doesn’t have cultural or ethnic ties to Ukraine, but he rallies every Saturday just the same.
“If I were a small country being attacked and invaded by a big country, I’d feel supported knowing that people were at least thinking about me,” he said.
Everhart reflected on the American Revolution, noting that the U.S. might not have won independence without France’s help. “I guess we’re paying it forward a little bit,” he said.
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Shulik and his co-organizers are hosting a rally at the Salmon Street Fountain in Portland starting at 4 p.m. today. Supporters of Ukraine will walk to Pioneer Courthouse Square between 6 and 7 p.m.
