Bay Area Ukrainians worried about relatives as war inches closer

TAMPA, Fla. - Ukrainian Americans in Tampa Bay are holding their breath as Vladimir Putin gets closer to launching an invasion.

Parishioners of Epiphany of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church off 4th Street say their hearts in Ukraine.

"First thing in the morning, you wake up and just check the news," said Roman Voloshyn of St. Pete.

His mom and dad live far from the Ukraine's western border with Russia, but are preparing for an invasion nonetheless.

"They have supplies for a week or two if anything happens, if there is no power, or there's no water," he said. "They have cash."

They say that since the Russo-Ukrainian War started in 2014 over the Crimean Peninsula, their relatives have been on freedom's frontline, as Vladimir Putin tries to assert Russian dominance over the state that won independence at the end of the Cold War in 1991.

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"Every country wants to have their own freedom and take care of their own people and to have their own way of living," said Olya Czerkas of St. Pete. "I have to say, we are, everyone, is afraid."

Sarasota's Andrew Futey is president of the Ukrainian World Congress. 

"Ukraine stands at the front lines of democracy," he said.

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He says Putin's threat of war is a harbinger for other world conflict. If he can get away with this, what other regimes might try to assert themselves against smaller nations?

"Putin wants to reestablish not the Soviet Union but the Russian Empire. This also sends a clear signal to China in terms of Taiwan. Sends a signal to Iran in terms of what it can do in the Middle East, It sends a signal North Korea about South Korea."

Optimism among Ukrainian-Americans that this will end relatively peacefully is getting harder to find, but they do pin hope on the strength of the NATO Alliance to beat back the Russian strongman. 

Czerkas was last in Ukraine in 2001.

"You always have lives that are lost [in a war]," she said. "These people are a joy and a pleasure and really a joy and pleasure. We hate to lose whoever it would be. Young, people, older people."