A Russian American and a Ukrainian American in Philadelphia discuss the war
“If you repeat the same lie enough times and you don’t hear anything else, then people eventually start to believe outrageous things.”
On February 24, Russia invaded the border into its neighboring country Ukraine — the biggest military mobilization in Europe since World War II. To date, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict. Another 13 million Ukrainians are displaced.
Philadelphia is home to both Russian and Ukrainian diaspora communities; Pennsylvania is home to the fourth-largest population of Russian Americans and the third-largest population of Ukrainian Americans in the country.
The Inquirer Opinion section asked Yevgeniy Levich, a Ukrainian American who was born in Kyiv, and Arielle Breuninger, the daughter of a Russian immigrant, to speak with each other about truth, the war, and how their communities are coping with the crisis.
» READ MORE: Philadelphia’s Ukrainian Americans and supporters rally for Ukraine