AVENTURA, Fla. – A showing of solidarity in South Florida on Sunday for the people of Ukraine.
On the side of a busy road in Aventura, a small group of people with strong ties to Ukraine stood with signs and pushed their message.
“The message is, the war needs to stop,” said protester David Greenbaum. “It’s a senseless war. Nobody is winning.”
It was just the latest in a string of pro-Ukraine protests in South Florida in recent days.
Russia’s invasion into Ukraine has not only caused death and destruction near the border, but the fight has also stirred up plenty of emotions among Ukrainian Americans like Greenbaum’s wife Tetyana Tyunter.
“I was born and raised in Ukraine,” she said. “Its really painful for me to see my friends, my family going through this war.”
Tyunter’s parents, who participated in Sunday’s protest, narrowly escaped Ukraine just two days before the invasion.
Greenbaum says his company still has about a dozen employees trapped in the hot zone.
“We’re getting calls in the middle of the night asking, ‘Should I run, or stay where I am, there are tanks in our city, we hear bombs going off’ and you’re trying to advise them on how to make these incredibly difficult decisions,” he said.
In northwest Miami-Dade County at a Ukrainian catholic church, parishioners spent their Sunday morning praying following the tense and difficult week that many nations, including the United States, are watching very closely.
“This war has to stop because there is no way Ukraine can sustain this damage much longer,” Tyunter said.