Ukrainian in Springfield says friends back home are 'ready to struggle' against Russians

Vlad Brodsky said his heart is no longer in Ukraine.

That doesn't mean his mind isn't.

Brodsky, 69, who came to Springfield from Kyiv in 1994, has been speaking to his friends there in a run-up to Russia's invasion early Thursday morning (European time).

"They have very good nervous systems," Brodsky said about their reaction to the buildup of Russian troops before Wednesday's late-night invasion. "They have no panic. Some of them buy guns and if (the Russians) come, they will struggle with them.

"They don't need my (analysis) about the situation. They're ready to struggle for their state, for their families, against the Russians.

"I knew the Russians would attack. I did not have hope they would not attack. I am afraid for (my friends)."

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Late Wednesday night, Brodsky and the world got the news that Russian troops launched a wide-ranging invasion after weeks of tensions full of diplomatic talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the attack in a televised address saying it was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, though U.S. officials said that was a false claim.

About 40 people were killed in the first hours of Russia’s invasion, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin of Springfield said the invasion is "what we feared but wasn't a surprise."

Durbin, who just returned from a trip to Poland Lithuania, said the invasion "breeched standards of civility. Despite diplomatic efforts by European allies and by President Biden, it was clear that Putin was damned determined to invade this innocent country."

Seven members of the Illinois National Guard are currently in Poland, said public affairs director Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton, as part of the State Partnership Program, a longtime partnership between Poland and the ING.

In February, an advisory team from the ING was in Poland working with the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade, including Ukranian military officers. A 165-member ING unit assigned to the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team based in Urbana returned in April from an 11-month deployment training Ukrainian soldiers, Leighton said.

The Greater Springfield Interfaith Association, in a statement released late Thursday afternoon, hoped "peace will prevail and that international harmony may be restored."

Brodsky and experts like Steve Schwark, a professor emeritus of global studies and political science at the University of Illinois Springfield, said they are not surprised to see handprints of Putin on the latest buildup.

Vlad Brodsky, who moved to Springfield from Ukraine in 1994, watches news reports on Ukraine from his home on Wednesday. [Thomas J. Turney/The State Journal-Register]

"(Putin is the type of person) who gets what he wants and will not give his power to someone else," Brodsky said. "He was a KGB man. (The Russians) will not stop."

Who Putin is paying attention to and what they're telling him "are the things I look at," said Schwark earlier this week. "It's beyond the military stuff. What's the politics and why is all of this happening now?

"There are suggestions that he's listening to people who are fundamentally hardliners."

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The invasion made for a sleepless night for Brodsky, who has been keeping up with friends in Ukraine via Facebook messenger and phone.

"I tried to sleep for about an hour, but I couldn't," Brodsky said Thursday. "I've been talking to friends all morning."

One friend in Kyiv had written to Brodsky that she had been taken to an underground train stop for safety. Brodsky was worried about another friend he had been in touch with who was sick and didn't have any food. Brodsky was concerned that the invasion might mean empty store shelves or hoarding.

Other friends of Brodsky's told him they wanted to move their children to the western Ukraine city of Ivano-Frankivsk, but that roads to the city had been closed after the city was bombed in the invasion.

"She said now parents with kids go walking around and she listens to the kids cry," Brodsky said. "They don't understand. They're scared."

Brodsky feared that if Russia occupied Ukraine, he might not be able to speak to his friends.

"The (Russian) government can say stop talking to our enemies, like the United States," he said.

If the 2008 invasion of Georgia is any template, Schwark said, the Russians were pretty much able to do what they wanted, "but it was not pretty. This is why this (potential invasion of Ukraine) could be a quagmire or a long-drawn affair and that will not do well for Putin."

With regards to the invasion, Brodsky admitted it will be "very, very difficult to say to (the Russians) it is time go back."

Brodsky came to the U.S. just a couple of years after Ukraine gained its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

Brodsky's paternal uncle arrived in Springfield in 1992 with the help of the Jewish Federation of Springfield. It was through that tie that Brodsky, who had worked as a graphic designer in Kyiv, was able to immigrate to the U.S. with his mother and father. Both have since died.

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Brodsky retired about a year and a half ago from the Illinois Secretary of State where he worked as a clerk printing motor vehicle stickers. He last visited Ukraine in 2001. His return trip to the U.S. was delayed by about a week when flights were grounded after hijackers flew into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11.

Even central Illinois could feel the effects of an invasion, Schwark said.

"The simple sort of thing would be at the gas pump," he said. "Energy is a big part of what the Russians use for power these days and it's obviously much more of a case in Europe than it is the U.S., but as people endlessly say, energy is a global market thing. Inflation is already an issue.

"You're going to see disruptions and you're going to see, as inevitably happens with markets – they overreact, and prices go way high."

Biden gets relatively high marks from Schwark for now, but the president is walking a fine line dealing with NATO, Putin and the American public.

"People think that Biden should be strong in all of this, but I also think there's not very much desire for conflict that involves the U.S.," Schwark said.

Vlad Brodsky, who moved to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1994, watches the news about Ukraine from his home in Springfield on Wednesday. [Thomas J. Turney/The State Journal-Register]

Given the invasion, Schwark wondered if China might try reclaiming Taiwan.

"People would be looking to see what happens (in Ukraine) and if Putin is successful and makes it a client state or whatever, that does send a message to a bigger extent," he said. "We're at a time when in both Russia and China, nationalism is a big thing now. These governments are ruling as much by appeals to nationalism than to other ideological appeals."

Durbin said the question now is "will Putin stop with Ukraine? We sincerely hope he will stop as soon as possible, but we have to be ready, which means we have to put our troops in the NATO-allied countries that are most vulnerable. Those would include Poland, Crimea and the Baltic republics."

Brodsky said he understood that people in Springfield think of Ukraine as a far-off notion.

Just after he arrived in Springfield, Brodsky recalled a young co-worker who thought Ukraine was in Romania.

"I said, 'Yeah, you're right but Ukraine is much bigger than Romania,'" Brodsky said, with a laugh. "She was taking geography classes in college. I was very happy because Romania is a neighbor of Ukraine, so it's not so (far-fetched)."

Brodsky recalled a 2019 attack in a region of conflict in the western African nation of Mali. The incident left 100 people dead, but escaped a lot of media attention, particularly in the U.S.

"We are listening (about that), and it is very far from me. It is not my business. It's very bad, but I sleep quietly," Brodsky admitted. "I think (people in Springfield) might think the same thing. (If) 100 people are killed in Ukraine, (they might think) 'Bad Russians, very bad,' but they sleep quietly.

Vlad Brodsky of Springfield talks to friends in Ukraine via Facebook messenger on Thursday in the aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of that country. Brodsky came to Springfield from Ukraine with his parents in 1994. [Steven Spearie/The State Journal-Register]

"With Ukrainians who live here in Springfield, it's different because we have friends there. They have very hard lives, some of them. I wish some of my friends were here, but some are very great patriots, and they will never leave Ukraine."

Putin is launching the most significant land war in Europe since World War II. We need to pull together with the civilized world to decry his savagery and defend our allies in NATO.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) February 24, 2022

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Ukraine-Russia tension grows, Springfield IL man fears for homeland