As the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated, the Oldham Times spoke to a member of Oldham’s Ukrainian community, Stefan Moroz.
Oldham has two Ukrainian churches – the Ukrainian Catholic Church of SS Peter, Paul and All Saints in Westwood, and St Volodymyr the Great Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Glodwick.
He said: “Everybody who’s a member of those parishes, all the members of our community, will have either distant or close members of their family who are caught up in this scenario.
“Everybody’s frantically trying to get in touch with families to find out whether they are safe. It’s difficult because in certain parts of the terrain they’ve jammed the use of internet and mobile phones.”
A liturgy is being held at the Catholic church on Sunday at 11.30 am – they will also be raising funds to go towards injured troops and civilians; all are welcome to attend.
“It’s particularly sad in our community – our parents that came over in 1947 after World War Two were not able to go back to their homeland," he said.
Stefan was born to a Ukrainian father and an English mother.
“People from Ukraine, who came to work, had to restart their lives from scratch.
“Having grown up as a post-World War child and having gone through life as the child of a migrant who came to Britain, our parents were given an opportunity to restart their lives in a democracy and safety.
“It’s a terrible shock to the system, some 50 or 60 years on, that we’re in another similar scenario where Ukraine has been occupied again and overrun.”
He added: “My father will be turning in his grave I’m sure today.”
“Many people in the West and Western leaders couldn’t believe or didn’t think that this would happen. Unfortunately, history tends to repeat itself and we’ve ended up with a scenario where Ukraine has been sadly left to take on the might of the rest of Russia.
“The sad thing is that Ukrainians don’t tend to be a warlike people – they are currently fighting tooth and nail as we speak.”
Ukraine had the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal, but gave it up with the signing of the Budapest Memorandum – a 1994 agreement signed by Ukraine, Russia, the US, and the UK in exchange for assurances that its sovereignty would be respected.
“There are many Ukrainians who live in the Russian Federation, and many Russians who have family members in Ukraine.
“There may be various scenarios where people from one part of the family will be defending Ukraine and other members of the same family will be on the opposing side in the Russian army.
“When I first heard about it, I was sick to my stomach because it was just gut-wrenching.”
The liturgy will be held on Sunday in the Ukrainian Catholic Church of SS Peter, Paul and All Saints at 11.30 AM – all are welcome.
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