This week, we asked readers for their thoughts on the United States accepting refugees displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

“Anything we can do to help them out would be great. They have no place to go, and Russia is bombing them like crazy; it’s sad. It’s sad what’s going on. I hope there is a good ending, I hope there is peace for everyone there, and I hope Russia doesn’t team up with China because that’s scaring everybody.”

David Glickenstein,

Jerome Park

 

 

 

“I think it’s a good thing because the innocent people get to escape the war. I also think it’s kind of unfair that many people are dying, while others get the opportunity to leave, so it’s both fair and unfair. But I still think it’s a very good thing.”

Elisabeth Degbor, 16 (with parents’ consent)

Jerome Park

 

“My mother was a Polish immigrant, and she came to America and had me, and I’m an American now and I support it 100 percent! I don’t think he [President Vladimir Putin] is going to have a choice. He’s going to be corralled there and stopped. He doesn’t want to stop, but he’s going to get stopped by force.”

Paul Kittas,

Bedford Park

 

“I’m not opposed to America taking in refugees from Ukraine or any country. I just hope that in the future, we afford refugees coming in from other countries…..and they’re given the same latitude that we afford Ukrainians and other Europeans, because we haven’t done that in the past. So, my take is, yes, when people need care, when they need support, when they need a place to live and start over again, we should absolutely open our borders. That’s what America is about… I am hopeful. I’m an optimistic person, and I am hoping that this ends sooner rather than later and less carnage happens.”

Kai Butcher,

Parkchester

 

“The Ukrainian people are being attacked in their homes and shelters by an unprovoked aggressor. The United States has been a refuge and launchpad for people from all over the world, and we should continue this for Ukrainians, who want to come here, whether or not they ultimately choose to return home. Let us live up to the promise of the Statue of Liberty in our harbor. We should also remember that individual Russians who are here are not the people killing innocents. My father fought Nazis in World War II, and he could tell the difference between the German enemy combatants and the nice immigrants here who sold him schnitzel.”

Mary O’Shaughnessy,

Wakefield

 

Editor’s Note: First-hand accounts of people of color e.g. medical students and others not having been afforded the same priority to exit Ukraine as native Ukrainians when the war broke out have been reported in the media.

 

President Vladimir Putin has attempted to justify the invasion of Ukraine, saying Russia’s actions are to protect the Russian-speaking residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the country from alleged “nazification.” David Roger Marples, distinguished university professor of Russian and East European history at the University of Alberta, disputes this claim, as have human rights organizations, writing, “Ukraine is more democratic than Russia. It holds regular elections, and there is relative freedom of speech and assembly. This supposed “neo-Nazi” regime is led by a Russophone Jew from eastern Ukraine [President Vladimir Zelensky].

 

Hundreds of international historians and academics signed an open letter at the end of February 2022 in which they acknowledge that while Ukraine does have a minority of right-wing extremists, this minority does not justify Russia’s aggression nor Putin’s allegations of genocide.