Election of Donald Trump stokes concerns among Connecticut's Ukrainian community
According to Chomnycky, the fear is that when Trump says he can end the war, he means he will cut off American support for Ukraine, allowing Russia to easily win.
More Stories
Members of Connecticut's Ukrainian community are among those concerned over the future following Donald Trump's victory in Tuesday night's presidential election.
"It's very distressing," says Irene Komarynsky, who sits on the board at the Stamford Ukrainian Museum and Library. "My relatives in Ukraine are asking me today like what do you think is going to happen? And I said I'm not sure what to tell you."
While Stamford's Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Paul Chomnycky says there are a large number of Ukrainian-Americans who support the president-elect's domestic policies, his comments that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine quickly are a different story.
Chomnycky says he hopes that does not mean that when he gets to office, Trump will "sell Ukraine off, you know, just give Ukraine to Putin."
According to Chomnycky, the fear is that when Trump says he can end the war, he means he will cut off American support for Ukraine, allowing Russia to easily win.
Komarynsky worries that "I don't think Trump understands or respects the legitimacy of Ukraine's fight for independence."
A fight that Komarynsky says must continue because "we have no choice, this is really existential."
Chomnycky adds that if Ukraine simply runs out of resources after nearly three years of war, and "if Mr. Trump forces Ukraine to capitulate to the wishes of Putin, then what were all those lives lost for?"
With still a few months until Trump takes office, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on Wednesday that In Washington, talks have already started on ways to buy Ukraine more time, telling reporters that "we have bipartisan support for a supplemental. I hope it will be in the range of tens of billions of dollars. We will work to get that across the finish line before the end of the year."
