WYOMING, Ohio — Two years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, additional military aid from the United States has become a heated topic of debate nationally, but the Wyoming, Ohio community wanted to recognize the war entering its third year Thursday by focusing on the human cost.
Paintings made by school children in Kharkiv, Ukraine greeted dozens who entered the Wyoming Presbyterian Church for a candlelight vigil.
Refugee Viktoriia Meriniuk said she has kept track of life in Kharkiv, just miles from the border with Russia, for two years.
"Kids are going to school. Even though it is underground, life gets on in the city. It is a very strong city," Meriniuk said.
Meriniuk said she was forced to flee Kharkiv just eight days into Russia's bombardment of the city, and she now lives in Kharkiv's sister city, Cincinnati.
"It is hard, really," she said. "Your life is divided between here and there."
At Thursday's recognition of the war's two-year mark, Ukrainians and supporters lit candles and said to others in the room what the candle's lighting meant to them.
"To the children of Ukraine," one woman said.
Cincinnati Kharkiv Sister City President Bob Herring said events like the one at Wyoming Presbyterian are important as the war somewhat fades into the background of daily life in America.
"We're here to remember, to support and to be hopeful for the future," Herring said.
Meriniuk said she hoped for victory by Ukraine, and Herring called for peace.
"My hope is that it ends soon and that people stop dying," he said. "That the kids get their dads back."
Organizers handed out packets of sunflower seeds, Ukraine's flower, to be planted around Cincinnati to bloom in the summer.
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