The Russian war on Ukraine has been going on for more than 17 months now, and that nation, the homeland of many Americans through their descendants, is suffering mightily!
This author and blogger always thought he was a descendant of Russian immigrants, not realizing that actually they were Ukranian immigrants fleeing a country that had been occupied and dominated by the Russian Czars.
Odesa, the Black Sea port, through which most grain is exported around the world, and home in the past of hundreds of thousands of Jewish families, has sustained horrendous attacks that have destroyed UNESCO World Heritage sites.
It is the ancestral home city of my ancestors, and at one point, I thought of traveling to Odesa with my older son to trace our roots, but of course, that is no longer conceivable!
Odesa has been compared to New York City in its Jewish population totals in its past before World War II, and it has warm weather similar to Miami, Florida in the summer months, making it a tourist mecca in the past.
The news of the tragedy of Odesa, along with the continuing attack and forced migration of millions of Ukranians to other nations in Eastern Europe, is heartbreaking in a very personal manner!
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the courageous Ukranian President, who has been compared to Winston Churchill and Great Britain in World War II, has proved to be a world statesman, and appreciates what the United States and the NATO alliance is providing to his nation to resist the Russian aggression.
The Biden Administration and principled Republicans in both houses of Congress have backed sustained aid to Ukraine, seeing it as a test to stop Russian aggression against its former neighbors which used to be part of the forced Soviet Union from 1945-1989.
But at the same time, Donald Trump and his minions have no concern about Ukraine’s fate, and wouuld have no issue over Russia seizing that nation, a shocking situation of support of Vladimir Putin and his murderous regime.
The future of Ukraine is a warning sign of Putin’s intentions to retake military control of former forced allies, including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and other nations in eastern Europe.
The fear is that World War III is in the offing, but this author and blogger is strong in his conviction that the Western world cannot abandon Ukraine, so even more aid and support is needed!