KIRKLAND, Wash. — One year ago today, under the direction of Vladimir Putin, Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
To date Washington state has taken in more than 16,000 Ukrainian refugees, the third most in the nation.
From an episcopal church in Kirkland prayers for the men and women fighting for the future of their country.
“As a Christian I pray for peace but in the meantime, we want to share a message of hope that we can help people that are caught in the middle of this that have no fault whatsoever,” said Ben Schercuic.
Schercuic was born in Romania just miles from the Ukranian border, “I was a refugee myself, I escaped communist Romania in 1989,” he continued.
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine in 2022, Scherciuc, the head of the healthcare nonprofit Vital Solutions, went to work. That meant flying to Romania and driving across the border into Ukraine.
“It seems that the local Ukrainians are really determined to protect their country and preserve their freedom. So there is the determination in them to make this, to survive and protect the freedom of their country,” Scherciuc said.
Americans who were thousands of miles from Ukraine provided money and resources to a now war-torn part of the world.
“Boots on the ground was originally focused on helping refugees get out,” said Rick Steckler a board member of the nonprofit iMiracle Project.
Steckler is an American with Ukrainian Heritage and shortly after the invasion he bought a plane ticket.
“There’s not a single Ukrainian that I’ve spoken with who doesn’t think that they’re going to prevail,” he continued.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign nation once under soviet rule, drew international outcry. Outrage quickly turned to protest. Gatherings in late February of 2022, drew Russians and Ukrainians to downtown Seattle to call for peace.
Scenes repeated in Seattle a year later.
“The suffering is still going on, people are still dying. Buildings are being destroyed cities are being pulverized,” Scherciuc said.
Western officials estimate fighting claimed the lives of as many as 200,000 people on both sides – though a true number is hard, if not impossible, to verify.