SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Tuesday is the 4th anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the bloodiest war in Europe since World War Two. And while thousands fight for their independence on the front lines, In Scranton, one pastor has been fighting from thousands of miles away. <\/p>\n
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, approximately 60,000 Ukrainians have been killed, 500,000 have been injured, and every Ukrainian’s life in and out of the country has been changed forever. One person who saw his life change is Father Myron Myronyuk, the pastor at St Vladimir\u2019s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Scranton. He came to the US in 2007, first to Philadelphia and then later, to Scranton. He had a feeling a conflict was going to break out as he read headlines in February of 2022, and he can still recall the night the invasion began vividly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never forget that night,” said Father Myronyuk. “When I was looking and that war started, I came to the church here. I light all candles and I didn\u2019t sleep all night. You know, I was aware of what’s going on. I\u2019m trying to reach my family and that was a big shock to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the last four years, he\u2019s helped his homeland in any way he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a hero. A hero in Ukraine. Because they are really fighting for the world. And I just feel a responsibility. We are one big family. That\u2019s why we have to help.”<\/p>\n
Since the outset he’s raised over a million dollars from donations and used it to send equipment back home to Ukraine. So far, he\u2019s sent a dozen vehicles, five ambulances, 5,500 sets of uniforms, 10,000 tourniquets, thousands of bandages, and countless items like flashlights, clothes, and medication. He gets the items in Pennsylvania and surrounding states, driving hours to source the right equipment while leading St. Vladimir’s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe help them through the years by the generosity of American people. We never made one month break of help. Continue, even in January I sent 20 boxes to Ukraine with the help and you know, we are blessed with the generous American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Displayed around the hall of his church, flags sent and signed by Ukrainian soldiers, thanking him, and his patrons for their help. Despite the nearly dozen that line the walls, he said he has tens more. He uses the flags and other tokens of gratitude as gifts for high-donating patrons, and while he says they often refuse, he insists because without the donors his fight far from the front lines would be impossible. He credits God with the fortune of being able to help supply the troops and said that if the Ukrainian people are giving everything for their survival, he can give everything to help them. But no matter how much he donates, the war rages on, and hurt for his people never goes away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always pain. It\u2019s always on my mind. And I connected to the people, I, I trying to understand and help them and praying for them because what they are going through, we never will experience. I wish nobody will experience what our people experience in Ukraine.” Father Myronyuk continued, saying, “I just feel sorry for my people. What they that war steal it from them life. Especially for children. You know even my relatives, they were in school, they have to go and hide and staying overnight and in basement, that was very difficult. That\u2019s affect their whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the constant loss and tragedy, Father Myronyuk knows that Ukraine will give everything before surrendering because while to Russia this may be a fight for land, for the Ukrainians fighting them back, it’s a fight for survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when we got our independence, we know we don\u2019t want to anymore to USSR like that. And that\u2019s why Ukrainian people are so resist. They don\u2019t want to go back. That\u2019s why they they fighting for their land, for their families, for children. That\u2019s why they are so brave. I\u2019m so proud of them. And what I enjoy to see, that they are fighting with God, that God is on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, at 6P.M. St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Catholic Church will hold a vigil and fundraiser to pray for the people of Ukraine and for the war to end. But as long as Ukraine keeps fighting, so will Father Myronyuk, as he fights for his family, his people, and his home, five thousand miles away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Tuesday is the 4th anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the bloodiest war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-121824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}