At the Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church in the
Queens borough of New York on a Sunday afternoon in late February, Ivan
Rodichenko is delivering a presentation to a rapt audience before him.
As images of war-torn eastern Ukraine appear on the projector screen
behind him, it becomes clear he has not traveled all the way from Kiev
to deliver a religious talk.
The real reason Rodichenko, a soldier with a volunteer
battalion fighting in
the East Ukraine conflict, came to the U.S. is
contained in a white envelope that is passed from table to table. One by
one, the group of about 40 people write their names down on a piece of
paper and then slip money into the envelope.
Departing this church basement in New York, the money will
be turned into basic equipment for the cash-strapped Ukrainian volunteer
battalions that are helping the regular army fight pro-Russian
separatists. Almost everyone in the room is an immigrant who still calls
Ukraine home and harbors strong feelings of nationalism.
“Without this help from people like them, the war is
already lost,” said Rodichenko, 33, who is midway through a tour of the
eastern U.S. to raise money for the 25th Territorial Defense Battalion
of Kiev, a military unit that was mobilized in the wake of the eastern
Ukraine conflict.
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