The group, Shield of Freedom, has rallied at Balboa Park for the past four and a half years in hopes that the United States does not turn its back on Ukraine. On Sunday, members of the group gathered to voice their frustrations with the president’s recent decisions involving the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrustrated, very\u2026very upset, very disappointed,\u201d Mira Rubin, rally organizer and president of the nonprofit Shield of Freedom said.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump claims his executive action to waive congressionally passed sanctions against Russia were in \u201cthe national interests of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Levine, who has been in the frontlines himself, as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan said instead, it feels like a betrayal to him and the American people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a veteran I can\u2019t tell you how offensive it is to me to think that our country is going to sell out innocent Ukrainians and innocent people, but also our own soldiers by helping out our adversaries, people that help kill American soldiers,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n
While the president said his diesel deal with Russia aims to help bring fuel prices down at home, some say they think the move will help bankroll Russia\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy signing this diesel deal, the United States is literally giving American taxpayers money to Russia to kill Ukrainians,\u201d Rubin said.<\/p>\n
They are also concerned after hearing reports of slowing down of the Starlink satellite terminals, which are critical for the Ukrainian military’s defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked to them and I know for a fact their Starlink, its speed was reduced and think about what that does it reduces their ability to intercept Russian rocket power\u2026 which has killed innocent Ukrainian since this happened because they couldn\u2019t intercept those drones,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff of California reacted to the move online saying in part, “Wondering if giving Russia a free pass is in our national interest?” Schiff added that President Trump signed the law less than 30 days ago and now has exempted every single new sanction meant to stop Putin’s war machine. He added, “This must stop now.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need our congressmen and congresswoman to do is not just say, hey, we oppose what the president is doing, or we send our thoughts and prayers. We need actual action,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 reached out to Sen. Adam Schiff, but he was not available for comment. NBC 7 also reached out to Rep. Sara Jacob\u2019s office for comment and is waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n
Through their nonprofit, Shield of Freedom, Levine and Rubin communicate with Ukrainian soldiers and American volunteers in the frontlines of the Ukraine War. That\u2019s why they said they\u2019re not giving up on their fight for freedom and democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHope always dies last and you only hope that reason will prevail,\u201d Rubin said.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 also reached out to Representative Sara Jacobs and is waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group, Shield of Freedom, has rallied at Balboa Park for the past four and a half years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[52905,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-500790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}