Although the rejection of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has developed several protests in New York, perhaps nowhere else is it having such an impact as in Brighton Beach, a neighborhood that is also known as ‘Little Odessa’, or Little Odessa. This is the neighborhood with the most Russian immigrants in the US, and there, Ukrainians see Russians as friends, a feeling that has been emphasized in the last two weeks, since Russia invaded Ukraine.
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New York City has approximately 600,000 Russian Americans. Most of them live in Brighton Beach, or Little Odessa. This is a neighborhood filled with Cyrillic signs where residents of Russia and a host of former Soviet Union countries have been living together for decades following waves of immigration that began in the 1970s.
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A tour of that neighborhood makes it clear that the russians have sympathized with the ukrainians. “Ukrainian flags are hanging from many businesses, and donation drives in support of Ukrainians have sprung up throughout the neighborhood and beyond,” Reuters reported on Sunday.
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Support in churches and businesses
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In many of these shops, which are owned by Russians, medicines and food are being collected to send to Ukrainian refugees in Europe.
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In just one day, Inga Sokolnikova filled two rooms at her beauty salon in Brighton Beach, New York City, with donated diapers, clothing and medical supplies for her native Ukraine.
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Donations came not only from the Ukrainian and Ukrainian American residents of this diverse waterfront neighborhood in South Brooklyn, but also from Russians, Georgians, Uzbeks and Azerbaijanis.
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Sergiy Emanuel, a priest at a local church, indicates that he has been receiving calls of support and donations from Russian people, but they do not mean that they are Russian. “They say, ‘Oh, we’re from here.’ They must be afraid to say they are from Russia. Why? For a madman?
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Little Odessa also marched to support the Ukrainians
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On Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in Little Odessa to show their support for Ukraine as the Russian invasion continues.
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A ceasefire was interrupted for the second day in a row on Sunday in the city of Mariupol due to continued shelling by Russian forces as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to call on NATO to establish a no-fly zone over the country. And to all these, 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine in 11 days.
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However, in ‘Little Odessa’ there are no lawsuits or controversy. Russians and Ukrainians live together like brothers.
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Yelena Makhnin, executive director of the Brighton Beach Improvement District, assures that the war has not come to Little Odessa, and that everyone continues to live in peace in this neighborhood between Coney Island and Manhattan Beach. “There is no tension,” he says. “If you are human, you should be Ukrainian today.”
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