‘Terrorist number one’: Ukrainians in the US call for West to do more following Putin’s invasion

‘There’s no panic, we need to stop this crazy guy, Putin’

Ukrainians in New York are urging the West to to step up their support for their home country to defeat “terrorist number one” Vladimir Putin.

Sergiy Donkin, the head of a local Ukrainian-US organisation, told The Independent the Ukrainian military could hold out against Russian forces for a time, but would need additional military and financial backing.

“Ukraine has a strong army right now, has a good president. There’s no panic, we need to stop this crazy guy, Putin. He is terrorist number one in the world,” he told The Independent on Thursday.

“I hope that the US stops this crazy guy. America, England, every normal country needs to support us.”

Mr Donkin said he hadn’t slept since the invasion began, and was in close contact with friends and family back home.

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“I feel very very bad, because what can I do to help? Maybe send money. Every Ukrainian will do something. Everybody is thinking about how they can help. All of my family are living in Ukraine, my cousins, my parents.”

Ukrainians are expected to turn out en masse to protests at Times Square and at the Russian embassy to the United Nations on Thursday.

In the Little Ukraine neighbourhood of Manhattan’s East Village, businesses proudly displayed Ukrainian flags in their shop fronts.

Ukrainian flag on display at the East Village Meat Market in the Little Ukraine neighbourhood of Manhattan’s East Village, on Thursday (bevan hurley/The Independent)

The area is home to restaurants, schools, several churches and many of the 150,000-strong Ukrainian population in New York have links to the neighbourhood.

Many were shellshocked at the full-scale Russian invasion launched on Wednesday night.

They questioned why more wasn’t done to halt the Russian military advance before it happened, and called on the US and its allies to step up its military and financial aid.

This infographic, created for The Independent by statistics agency Statista, shows the relative military strength of Ukraine and Russia (Statista/The Independent)