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WATERVLIET, N.Y. (NEWS10) — It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. For the second year, over a hundred people attended St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Catholic Church in Watervliet to pray and mourn for those who have died during the conflict.
“Being here at events like this gives you the human side of that war,” John Safford, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, said.
That’s also because many refugees attended, with friends and family members sharing their stories. Jeanne Toth’s family is from Ukraine, and when the war started two years ago, she wanted to find a way to help.
“I wanted to do something, Toth said. “But I wasn’t sure what I could do.”
The church connected her with a refugee who needed a place to live, and she continues to help her.
“I hope that Ukraine becomes independent again and is a democracy,” Toth said.
Vasyl Dovgan, Pastor of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Troy, has been helping Ukrainian refugees while also collecting donations for humanitarian needs.
“There are some people who have a chance to move from the area where they were from the Eastern part of Ukraine,” he said. “But some people, it’s not that they are refusing… They have nowhere to go.”
For the last two years, the church has continued to collect donations to help the refugees and help with humanitarian needs in Ukraine. All information on how donations can be made can be found on the church’s website.
In the meantime, many churchgoers said they would continue praying for the same hopeful future.
“Our parents, our brothers and sisters… will have freedom. And breath freely,” Pastor Dovgan said.
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