Several local organizations supported the effort to coordinate the vigil which was hosted by the Oxford Citizens for Peace and Justice.
OCPJ board president Barb Caruso thanked everyone for attending.
“We’ve asked you here today in community … to stand, sit or lie down for peace,” she said.
Ann Fuehrer, facilitator for OCPJ, said she was there and others were, as well, to show a negative reaction to the inhumanity of the situation in Ukraine and express solidarity.
“We come here today because we know that 5,000 miles away there is a war, but there are other wars in the world. There are videos showing massive destruction to a maternity hospital,” she said referring to a report a day earlier from Ukraine. “Over two million people have left and more need to be evacuated. Those remaining are in need of basic human supplies. We want to express solidarity. We want to fight to wage peace.”
Dr. Angela Trubceac, who earned her doctoral degree from Miami last year, spoke at the vigil and said she has relatives in both Moldova and Ukraine. She said she was part of the local Truth and Reconciliation Project which worked to get the history marker placed in the Uptown park as a reminder of the lynching of two black men here in the 1800s.
She said she speaks to family members over there regularly and when they finish speaking, they do not tell each other “good night.” Instead, they wish each other “a peaceful night.”
Moldova shares a 1,000-kilometer border with Ukraine, she said. The two countries became independent with the breakup of the Soviet Union but the Russian army remains after 30 years.
“Thank you to the Ukrainian people. Their bravery gives the entire world an example of how they want to live,” she said. “Thanks to the war, we are united with different parties, different ethnicities. If you can help financially, please do that.”
Fuehrer invited participants to join in conversation with others around them to speak about how all of this makes them feel.
That was followed by comments from another speaker, who had been reluctant to speak at first, but asked to do so.
Dr. Liza Skryzhevska, associate dean of the Miami University Regionals, said she speaks each night with her elderly mother in Odessa, Ukraine.
“My mother does not know how to leave. Younger people can leave. My mother and her elderly sisters cannot go,” she said of her mother not being able to travel. “Thank you all for being here. Just having people aware of it makes me stronger. Thank you for knowing about Ukraine. It’s a beautiful country. There will be better times for the people.”
The program closed with the reading of a poem by Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimcnuk from one of her two books of poetry. She is also a screenwriter and playwright.