Approximately 70 people attended a demonstration to support Ukraine on Thursday outside the Carbon County Annex Building, Jim Thorpe.

Men and women from all over the area waved American and Ukrainian flags, banners, posters and wore yellow arm bands to show support of the country of Ukraine, now suffering the worst invasion and attack since World War II.

Mike Luciw is a Vietnam veteran who lives in the Lehighton area, and was born in Peremysh, Poland, the city where many of the Ukrainian refugees are going as they leave Ukraine. Luciw shared his feelings.

“It’s really amazing. What happened is that 78 year ago, my parents had to leave Ukraine because of the Russians. They went to Peremysh, and that’s where I was born. And eventually, I ended up on America.”

“It’s mind-boggling,” Luciw said. “For me it’s hard to comprehend that at this time in the 21st century, people act like barbarians. To them, a human being doesn’t mean a thing; killing like animals. They don’t discriminate; children, men, women, they just bomb them. To me, it’s unbelievable. We are regressing instead of progressing as humanity.”

The rally was coordinated by local resident Linda Christman and Ulana Prociuk from the Ukrainian Homestead, Lehighton.

The crowd stood along Route 209 in front of the annex building as many cars and trucks passing by honked their horns in support. Later, the crowd moved to Josiah White Park in front of the train station.

Carbon County Commissioner Rocky Ahner attended and offered his support.

Christman thanked everyone for attending, and Prociuk addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support.

“Thank you for showing your support for Ukraine and Ukrainians during this unspeakable horror; invasion of a free sovereign and democratic Ukraine by Putin’s Russia,” Prociuk said to the crowd, and repeated the poem by Vasyl Andriyovych Symonenko, a Ukrainian poet and activist from the 1960s.

“Ukraine you are my prayer,

“You are my age-old despair.

“A fierce battle is raging over the world,

“For your life, your rights.”

If anyone would like to help the effort, donations are being accepted by the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, http://www.uuarc.org. Or UUARC, 1206 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia PA 19111.