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Residents gathered on Saturday in Raleigh to celebrate Ukrainian Independence Day as the country’s war against Russia goes on.
A festival was held at Ridge Road Baptist Church in Raleigh for the holiday, which is on Sunday.
“This festival is a way for us to speak to our community, to talk to our neighbors and friends, and talk to them about what’s going on in Ukraine right now,” said Olena Kozlova-Pates, an organizer of the festival.
The festival offered live Ukrainian music and folk dancing, raffles, authentic Ukrainian food and art and a tour of the Ukrainian School of Raleigh.
The holiday celebrates the country’s declaration of independence in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation.”
Saturday’s festival comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushes to go to the negotiating table to end the war with Russia.
“Ukraine is Europe’s largest democracy. Ukraine is America’s best friend, and Ukraine, right now, is standing between good and evil,” Kozlova-Pates said.
President Donald Trump met with Zelenskyy on Monday, just three days after his face-to-face meeting with Putin in Alaska. There were no concrete commitments to security guarantees or steps toward a peace deal from either meeting, with several criticizing Trump’s meeting with Putin for not being productive enough.
“I’m very disappointed with what our country afforded Putin and Alaska, that gave him worldwide stature and accomplished nothing,” said Elaine Marshall, who attended Saturday’s festival.
Trump had suggested a meeting between the two European leaders was close, but Russian officials said a meeting was not close and accused Ukraine of being uninterested in a “sustainable, fair and long-term settlement.”
The festival happened just two days after Russia launched its largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine in more than a month. Nine civilians were killed in the strikes as well in shelling in eastern Ukraine.
Organizers told WRAL News they plan on sending pictures of the festival to the battlefield and hospitals in Ukraine to show those fighting and living in Ukraine that they have support from family and friends in North Carolina.
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