ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0It has been four years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and despite peace talks orchestrated by the U.S., the war continues to rage on, bringing devastation and death to both countries.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, dozens of people \u2014 including some who escaped the war \u2014 gathered in downtown Orlando at Lake Eola Park for a candlelight vigil in the hopes of keeping the community\u2019s attention on the fighting, and the lives that have been lost.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Feb. 24 marked four years since Russia invaded Ukraine
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Nearly 2 million people have died from both Russia and Ukraine during the conflict
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Close to 100 people gathered in downtown Orlando at Lake Eola Park to not just honor the lives lost and the damage to families, but to show resilience as well
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People in attendance said they want the war to end, and will gather to mark the anniversary every year until the war is over<\/p>\n
Four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the pain that invasion has brought is still fresh for many in that crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys of my family are at war. My brother is at war,” said event organizer and Ukrainian citizen\u00a0Yaryna Levytska. “He was wounded several times and went through several injuries and was captured by Russians and he is still there. He\u2019s still fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levytska said the goal of the event wasn\u2019t just remembrance, but to also show resilience.<\/p>\n
She said that while headlines about the war may have faded, many people continue to feel the devastation every day.<\/p>\n
Those in attendance set up candles in unison, donned blue and yellow flags and gathered together in solidarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just feeling very sad for the whole day,”\u00a0said Ukrainian American Nina\u00a0Orolovskaya. “And many people are just crying like me and I would like to be with Ukrainians for this, just because it\u2019s horrible date for all of our nation.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orolovskaya said she has lived in the U.S. since 1999 but was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in 2022.<\/p>\n
And while it breaks her heart not to be there now, she said she wants to do whatever she can to help support her homeland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI collect donations for clothes,”\u00a0Orolovskaya said. “Because many people have a lot of clothes and don\u2019t really need them, and so I collect those clothes and pack them.”<\/p>\n
The vigil also served as a reminder of the humanitarian crisis that continues in Ukraine four years later.<\/p>\n
Millions of people remain displaced, including more than 100,000 who are now in the United States on Temporary Protected Status.<\/p>\n
And as the candles flickered, the message from the group was clear: they have not, and will not ever forget.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to tell the world that we need support financially \u2014 but not only financially, but to help save people and to bring the war so people will remember this,” Levytska said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0It has been four years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and despite peace talks orchestrated by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,274,52349,14105,115,1335,139,141,140,278,21553],"class_list":["post-168464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-ukraine","tag-brandon-spencer","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}