Hundreds gathered again in Ukrainian Village on Sunday and urged President Joe Biden to support the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as Russian airstrikes continue to pummel the country.
“President Biden: You are our servant; we are not your servant,” Dan Diaczun, president of the Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress of America, told the crowd outside the Ukrainian Cultural Center.
“You must do what we ask,” Diaczun said to Biden. “Close the sky!”
As demonstrators hoisted signs bearing similar messages, many chanted and echoed Diaczun’s sentiment. In addition, he and the crowd also pushed hard for fighter jets to aid Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
But despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressing NATO to impose a no-fly zone that could limit Russian attacks, the alliance has resisted. With that appeal hanging in the balance, Zelenskyy pleaded with U.S. lawmakers this weekend to at least send warplanes — although Biden’s administration has already scuttled a plan to send Polish fighter jets to Ukraine.
“Our small air force has done miraculous things. … But we need help,” said Diaczun.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill, has been a leading voice in calling for both those measures. On Sunday, he acknowledged the crowd’s chants of “no-fly zone” and offered a clear response: “Ukraine has earned it.”
“They have been doing NATO’s and the world’s dirty work for the last eight years, fighting the Russians in the east,” said Quigley, co-chair of the House Ukrainian Caucus.
For his part, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, touted the $13.6 billion in spending Congress passed last week to fund humanitarian aid, defense assistance and economic support in the region. But he also acknowledged the dire circumstances in Ukraine, where he noted a maternity hospital was recently shelled and many are still sheltering in subway stations.
“There is a special place in hell for [Russian President Vladimir Putin],” said Durbin, the co-chair of the Senate Ukrainian Caucus. “And there is a room that is being reserved for him on the same corridor with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.
“What [the Russians] have done to Ukraine is unforgivable. These are war crimes if there ever were, and we’ve got to stand up for the people of Ukraine.”
