KYIV – Two prominent North American Ukrainian organizations issued statements in support of Ukraine that called on preemptive Western sanctions on Russia, with one of those statements calling for the resistance of the “old world order of aggressive authoritarian powers.”
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) noted the unfairness of Ukraine suffering more “economic hardships” than Russia in the face of what the United States and Britain say is an “imminent” threat of further invasion by Moscow forces.
The Toronto-based World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations at the United Nations (WFUWO) on February 12 released a statement of defiance saying that “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s vision will fail” once the ongoing war that Russia started in 2014 winds down.
“With each hour, Vladimir Putin’s threat of Russian aggression against Ukraine intensifies,” the group’s statement read. “Whether he chooses a military invasion of Ukraine, a crippling cyberattack, an economic chokehold, or any combination of destructive actions, his intent to break Ukraine, the nation, and her people, is unequivocally clear.”
Led by Andriy Futey, the UCCA, which represents nearly 2 million U.S. citizens of Ukrainian heritage, urged the West to “enact severe consequences for the Kremlin’s ever-increasing aggression against Ukraine.”
Beyond the conventional military threat of having more than 140,000 well-equipped soldiers and heavy weaponry stationed adjacent to Ukraine’s borders, Russia is impeding maritime traffic in vital commercial routes of the Black and Azov seas, the statement said.
“For Ukraine, this has translated to a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a day,” the UCCA said on February 14.
The statement lamented that, through its aggressive military posture to further invade, Russia is suffering far less than Ukraine economically.
Airlines are limiting or cancelling flights. Inflation is rising. Embassies, including Russia’s, are trimming their non-essential staff while some are relocating from Kyiv further west to Lviv. Ukraine is having trouble accessing credit markets to keep its economy afloat and is relying on macro-financial assistance from the U.S., Canada, Britain and European Union member states.
Combined, these events are causing Ukraine to suffer “heavier and heavier financial penalties every day,” the UCCA said.
It concluded its statement for a demand to sanction Russia now and not wait until war further harms Ukraine.
“If the United States continues to publicly raise the alarms about an imminent Russian invasion, which has aready resulted in economic losses, why does the United States refuse to sanction Russia now,” the Ukrainian American advocacy group said.
