>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made on the Dnipro River in Ukraine.

The river has frozen over.

Temperatures are subzero Fahrenheit.

Russia was supposed to pause its attacks on Ukraine, but they have continued to target Ukraine's energy grid.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.

Realistically, millions have no power, no heat in the midst of a brutal winter.

That's part of Russia's strategy.

So how are the Ukrainian people responding with a dance party on the frozen river?

Video of partiers of dancing, of drinking and reveling.

It's gone viral, demonstrating the resilience of Ukraine.

Soon it will be four years since Russia invaded, four years after the Kremlin figured it would take three days to control Kyiv.

They certainly did not expect a conflict that would last longer than a World war.

Our WXXI colleague Mikhail Gershteyn is Ukrainian, proudly Ukrainian, if you know him.

And he's back visiting his native country.

Mikhail has made multiple trips to Ukraine since the invasion, creating a film that documents the invasion and its impact on Michael's people.

This hour, he joins us to discuss what's happening in Ukraine now and what he's seeing.

And he's joining us.

I think we've got him.

Mikhail Gershteyn.

How are you, sir?

>> I'm.

I'm warmer today.

Good to see you, Evan.

I mean, warmer today than in Kyiv.

>> Real?

Realistically.

Are you keeping warm?

Do you have power?

>> the hotels where I'm staying.

The power is there.

If.

So in Kyiv, it takes about 5 to 7 minutes to start the generator.

here in Khmelnytskyi, it switches almost immediately.

There is a little a little delay.

they went off a few times yesterday, and I think this afternoon so far.

but the city Khmelnytskyi was without electricity for a couple hours this.

Morning, afternoon.

When I was working with volunteers.

>> Let me welcome as well.

In studio with us is Elena Dilai, who is board secretary for RocMaidan.

Welcome back to you.

Thank you for being here.

>> Thank you.

Evan, thank you for having me.

>> Elaine and I were talking before the program that, you know, no one in the Kremlin, but certainly almost even in the international community and maybe in Ukraine, thought it would be four years of this with no end in sight.

Is that amazing to you?

>> Right.

It is incredible.

And of course, Russia thought that it would be a very quick takeover, which did not happen.

And then at some point, as you recall, I mean, we have a long relationship with the Connections.

And back in the day, I actually was one of those very optimistic and hopeful ones, which to me now, at this point, I feel very discouraged.

I feel that I don't even know how to end this war, and the world doesn't know how to end the war.

>> So we're not going to spend the hour.

We're going to spend the hour really kind of hearing from Mikhail and understanding what's going on in Ukraine.

Now, we're not going to break down every individual peace proposal.

But, Elena, there have been a number of floated proposals that the press has reported on.

The Trump administration has talked about this.

You see some idea, some semblance of an outline of it.

Nothing that looks to you like it is doable.

And maybe the harbinger of actual peace.

You don't you don't see it.

>> In order for it to for there to be a true, true peace proposal, both countries have to be in line with what is being proposed.

And Ukraine will not concede their territories.

Russia wants the territories, and that's a very major point of why these peace negotiations really don't have a big promise.

Yeah.

>> Well, I mean, again, it's for another day to talk about if the specific proposals.

But I think to Elena's point, we're not on the brink of peace.

It doesn't look like that.

And let's talk a little bit about some of what I just mentioned off the top of this program here.

Mikhail, I think we've got some video.

We got a number of pieces of video that Mikhail has sent.

Again, he's a filmmaker.

He's an engineer here at WXXI.

He's our colleague, and he's already created one film on the invasion of Ukraine.

And part of the film that that Michaela sent from the past week includes people partying outside, people celebrating.

I mean, I've seen different video from different sources.

Mikhail, of people dancing on a frozen River.

What has it been like to see that?

>>, no, I I've seen the videos before.

earlier that, that evening that video, actually, it was pretty viral.

And the.

You should see the people dancing in their apartments.

And there was in the evening earlier that day, there was a party on, on the ice and one of the, on one of the beaches of the Dnipro River and I was coming back to the hotel, and all of a sudden, there's a group of people dancing in.

>> Frozen feet for a second there.

So let's do this.

Let's reestablish with Mikhail.

And if we've got the video still queued up, if you're watching on YouTube again, our colleague is joining us from Ukraine.

We understand the power may be in and out.

We're going to do our best to keep Mikhail on the program here.

but maybe we can rerack that video that we just saw that Mikhail brought us of people up in apartments, dancing, people outside, reveling.

Elena, have you seen scenes like this in the last week?

What have you.

What do you make of this?

>> You know what Ukrainians say.

They say we want the world to see that we are living.

We are living.

We're celebrating our life.

Though it is atrociously terrible life nowadays, but they feel that if people in the world see that we are alive, that we want to live, they will support us.

And that is actually there's first, when I first read it, I was puzzled and surprised somewhat because I mean, I know firsthand from those who live in Ukraine how terrible it is right now, but there is something to it.

And Ukrainians are very strong spirited people.

>> Well, so tell me a little bit more about about the idea that people are going to be resilient in the face of this.

It's been almost four years, and clearly at this point, Vladimir Putin is counting on Ukrainians to buckle under the pressure.

That's why they're still attacking the energy grid.

They want people to suffer.

They want people to think they're going to freeze to death, that they won't have a grocery store, that they can go to, that they won't be able to get food and they'll eventually say, just give him what he wants and end this war.

How four years in, that has not happened.

>> And I doubt that it will be because Ukrainians have strong history with Russia.

Like the history goes back deep, right?

And we've been there before.

Ukrainians.

I am of the family where a lot of family was sent.

My grandfather was sent to Siberia.

Many were killed.

Many were like Ukrainians that ended up here in U.S.

and in Canada.

They were running from Russia right back in the day, Soviet Union was forming.

It will be no different.

So say, hypothetically, we stopped the war in a in a way that is not good for Ukraine, meaning Russia takes over, right?

Ukrainians know that the killings will continue.

It's just that they will be concealed.

They will be different.

There will be torture.

They will be extermination of anyone who has Ukrainian will and Ukrainian soul.

It is about Ukraine as a country, an existence of Ukraine.

So Ukrainians know it.

And that's why in the spirit is high no matter what.

>> Well, I think we've got Mikhail back.

And again, to our listeners, to our viewers on YouTube, we may have occasional power in and out issues.

I mean, Mikhail is in Ukraine.

The energy grid has been under attack.

He's back.

I see him back nodding there.

Here you are also resilient.

Mikhail, tell us a little bit about the people that you have talked to in in this particular trip here.

Elena is telling us that she doesn't know a whole lot of Ukrainians who think, well, just give Putin what he wants.

And this war and the fighting, what has been the spirit of the people that you have talked to generally?

Mikhail?

>> Well, first, people are tired of war.

Definitely all of them.

but I met with the professors and students in Mykolaiv.

And University of Petro Mohyla University in Mykolaiv, and they're pretty optimistic.

The believe that the Ukraine will win the, the students continue to go to classes.

although they we are in the closes and it's pretty cold.

the teachers are teaching and it the spirits are up.

Not everywhere.

I mean, you can definitely see some depression, and it's obvious.

And the fourth war fourth year of the invasion.

but the optimism, optimism in general is still exists.

For example, the a volunteer organization here in Khmelnytskyi.

They've been working constantly, nonstop.

helping like during the time I spent with them earlier today the power went off.

They put the head, flashlights and heads and continue working, doing, making the camouflage nets.

then they would, you know, take a break, have a tea or or the people on the street dancing.

to get warmer or giving way.

Sending either money or something, something warmer, you know, to to the front lines.

For instance, we were sending with that same volunteer organization.

I was at the post office with one of our organizers, and we were sending power banks.

or other necessary stuff to the front through the post office.

so the, the people's spirits are up and in general, the but there are some issues.

Obviously, it will be issues during especially during these kind of long time of the war.

But I, I don't know if you remember back in the first days when the war started, I mentioned that the war will go on for a long time.

And I think my deadline is still exists.

End of August of 2026.

I'm not sure if it's going to happen.

Everyone would love that to happen as soon as possible.

the country want to go back to the peaceful you know, mode to start rebuilding, to.

Heal the wounds of this war.

and I'm talking not just the wounds of destroyed buildings, which I've seen quite some, in my travels, but the wounds of those who were fighting at the war.

Like I said, I met one of them this morning.

and he told me a few few things.

They still not going to talk about, but he was wounded.

He spent time with one hospital.

Now he's traveling to another.

I met a friend of mine, former classmate from university in Kyiv.

he is handicapped now because of the war.

so it's it's tough.

It my family members are fighting to us, you know, so.

Yeah, but everyone want peace.

Yeah.

Ukrainians in general are very peaceful.

Nation.

but if you touch them they will resist.

And the resilience are strong.

>> So let me ask Elena.

Elena Dilai is board secretary for RocMaidan.

This is an organization that continues to support the Ukrainian people.

Again, four years into this war.

It's a lot of need.

What are you doing today?

What are you doing these days?

>> So I would like to start with a little bit of information about RocMaidan.

For those who perhaps are unfamiliar with who we are, we are a nonprofit organization that helps Ukraine with medical and humanitarian assistance.

Now, it is important to know that we are 100% volunteers.

We don't have any paid staff, and we're proud of that.

And that's why I want our listeners to know that we were formed in 2014. that was in response to annexation of Crimea, the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine.

And actually, we never thought that we will grow this big in.

But once the war started, full scale invasion started in 2022, all of a sudden we became a central organization to help Ukraine.

And we collect medical supplies.

We collect wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, medical beds.

We buy first aid kit for severe wounds and bleeding like effects.

Individual first aid kits, medical tactical backpacks.

And we have a warehouse in Webster where we pack all that medical supply, and then we ship it to Ukraine very proudly.

And at the same time, very sadly, that there is a need for it.

On February 14th, we will be sending our 30th container since the beginning of the full invasion.

And that is a lot.

Roughly every second month, every two months we send a container to Ukraine and that's a 40 foot huge container of aid.

So we are proud of it.

But we are also proud of Rochester because that aid comes from this city.

And we always make sure that we put Rochester, New York on everything we send.

Just so people in Ukraine know local rochesterians are the ones that are supporting them.

>> So there's the story on RocMaidan you saw if you're watching on YouTube, on the WXXI News YouTube channel, you saw some of Mikhail's video of people packing up packages and local post offices.

He's in Ukraine.

If you're just joining us, I mean, those efforts continue and they are desperate.

I mean, people are really, really suffering in a lot of ways.

That's what we're hearing this hour.

I want to take a look at some of the other pieces of video that Mikhail has shared with us, and then we'll talk to Mikhail about them.

First of all I, I want to take a look at a piece of video called Memorial with Mikhail narrating.

So you're going to hear our colleague Mikhail Gershteyn narrating this the video that he recently shot in Ukraine of this memorial.

Yeah.

If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it for some reason.

I'm not getting the audio, but you know, this cloudless, cold day and you can.

>> See comes later.

>> Yeah.

Mikhail, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about what we're seeing here?

>> Well, the this is a memorial to the fallen soldiers from actually from all over the world, right in the middle of the Independence Square in Kyiv.

When I was here in 22, there were just a little piece of like where maybe 20, 30, small Ukrainian flags were in the ground.

And now it's grown into 2 or 3, I think 2 or 3 layers of on that hill.

it's one of the days, actually, they when I shot the video, I didn't started it until I passed the.

There was a young woman with the little girl standing in front of one of the paintings and my understanding was there was a father so I started it later.

didn't want to distract.

There are people coming over.

I've seen it there, and I've seen it in Khmelnytskyi, too.

There is an alley of heroes here, which has grown tremendously from the 2022.

And as a matter of fact, not far from the entrance to hotel yesterday, we we saw the of the young men who I think part of the film he was alive in 2022, and he he fell in the war in 2025. which was very sad to me for me to learn because I thought, I. I'll meet some people from previous visit, but the people are coming just pay respect and remember I saw one picture of the familiar face that I think I met in 2022, in Kherson.

the journalist who was killed recently and not recently, like last year.

so it's never it's always quiet.

The people passing by some some of them stop in, some of them pausing.

it's always quiet and all over Ukraine.

At 9:00 in the morning, everything stops.

Not everywhere, unfortunately, but mainly everywhere.

It's a minute of memory.

And everyone stop.

Everyone freezing the cars.

The people on the street, and it's like the all Ukrainian, the UN honor to the fallen soldier.

Wow.

Soldiers.

>> 9:00 every morning, a minute long moment of silence.

And the memorial that you saw in the video again, Mikhail said it was a few flags four years ago, and it is now multiple layers, city blocks.

I mean, it's just hard to look at.

And so, Elena, let me ask you a question and then what we'll do is we'll go back to Mikhail.

We'll talk about he's got a piece of video from the Wall of Fallen Defenders as well.

And we'll we'll talk about that.

Elena, when I think about the conversation we had last year, there was a delegation that came to Rochester visiting from Ukraine.

a group of Ukrainian women who were talking about, you know, what they have lost.

Essentially, their message was you don't know anybody in Ukraine who hasn't lost somebody now or hasn't had their lives changed.

So a woman talked about losing her husband.

Another her husband was lost a leg and is not going to walk again.

And they've got, you know, a three year old child.

And they said, this is every family, every everywhere you go in Ukraine.

Somebody knows somebody who's either died or their lives have been changed.

You know, buildings have been targeted, children have been killed.

So even if we can imagine this war ending, which right now you can't, I'm trying to think of what happens when an entire country has been traumatized for years by a neighbor, and you're going to find peace.

I mean, is the resentment and anger going to be forever here?

Is there a way to a future where there is a friendship between Russia and Ukraine that you could ever see?

>> So forever is a a word that is difficult to address, right?

Sure.

Let's think back to World War two.

Let's think about Eastern and Western Berlin and that Berlin, wall, wall.

And some thought it will never fall, but yet it did.

And people found peace with time.

Right.

So I don't know.

I'm not going to speculate at this moment.

I want the war to end and Ukrainians will grieve and they will rebuild and they will survive, and they will revive the country with the help of the world, of course, because they will need people bringing in investments and perhaps labor.

And if you think about the population, so much of the population, large portion is lost.

They're either refugees scattered all over the world who may return or maybe not.

It depends on how long the war will be going.

Right.

And then many die.

And you're right.

Stories of people dying are like, consistent.

We just recently learned one of our long term partners, volunteers in Ukraine.

His daughter died, 22 year old.

She was getting surgery in Kyiv Hospital and the bombing started.

And that affected what happened in the surgical room.

And she died.

She was not even bombed.

She wasn't killed by the bomb, but she was.

It was a direct effect of what happened.

and that is just takes your breath away because you understand that nobody is safe.

You don't have to be at the front lines.

You are just a civilian living normal lives.

And you can be targeted at any moment.

So.

But Ukrainians are strong.

They will revive.

But but it will take time.

And as to friendship with Russia, you know, it's a very difficult question to answer.

Very difficult question.

I know that personally.

I stopped using Russian language.

I simply refuse to speak Russian.

and it's very difficult, you know, for us, those of Ukrainian descent, those who have strong connection to the country, this subject is a very, very challenging subject.

>> Mikhail, to Elena's point about Germany and the falling of the wall and 1945, the question of whether the world could find friendship with Germany.

It not only took decades, there was obviously there was a marshall plan, there was rebuilding, but there was also a great deal of humility on the part of the German people.

and there were there was a very direct campaign in Germany to, to teach the future generations about Nazism, about what happened, about what led to the rise of Hitler.

And they taught it very directly.

They taught it in conjunction with partners from places like the United States.

And, you know, by the 60s and 70s, a lot of the disposition of the world had changed.

And but it took a long time, and it took it took sort of accountability on the part of the German people.

And I, you know, that's I wonder if you think that that is a prerequisite for any sort of real friendship between Russia and Ukraine in the future.

For you, Mikhail.

>> It Selena said.

It's a very hard question.

for now, Ukraine and the people want this war and they want rebuild and rebuild.

I don't see it in the closest future happening.

the Russian Russians are different.

It's not majority, not probably not going to go the way that Germany went in rebuilding.

And recognizing the guilt of what happened during World War two.

I don't I don't see it.

Generations maybe.

I don't know how many generations.

I'll be surprised if I'll see it in the end of my life.

>> yeah.

>> I will be very surprised because, you know, I'm.

I'm a Russian speaking.

I like it wasn't in in it wasn't a family.

Mostly because of my father was in the military.

I start learning Ukrainian when the invasion started by just picking up and even my friends here in Ukraine today were very surprised how I advanced in Ukrainian.

But I'm trying to speak with my friends in Ukraine in Ukrainian language, at home to Russians.

Russian language is not going to go out of my mind and vocabulary.

Unfortunately, I'm not young anymore.

But I again, going back to this piece I'm angry with them.

I have I had quite a few friends in, in Russia and there was a period of time in 22 when I was asking them questions.

they called me Nazi, Ukrainian Nazi, which is weird.

so I don't know.

I cannot forgive and forget what I've seen in Mykolaiv or Kyiv or here in Khmelnytskyi or in Kherson.

When I was in Kherson.

it's very hard to forgive when you see the bodies of the of killed kids.

covered after yet another bombing of the civilian buildings.

So.

I don't know, no hard.

>> After we take this only break, we're going to come back and we've got more of the video that our colleague Mikhail Gershteyn has shot this week in Ukraine.

He is in his native Ukraine right now.

Joining us live from Ukraine, talking about what he's seeing there.

And Elena Dilai, who is board secretary for RocMaidan, is with us in studio.

You heard this hour?

Yes.

The last four years have been busy for RocMaidan, but this is an organization that is now coming up on 12 years old.

Since the invasion and annexation of Crimea back in 2014, that, you know, many people internationally observing thought would be as far as Putin might go.

And now, of course, we see that's not the case coming up on four years of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

So let's come right back and we've got more video to share with you.

If you're watching on our YouTube page for WXXI News, you'll see some of that fresh from Ukraine.

That's next.

Coming up in our second hour, the team from City Magazine joins us to talk about the February issue and the theme this month for City Sex and Love.

Not always easy to talk about these subjects.

Why is that and why is it so difficult to find love at a time when we're all supposed to be so much more connected?

The team from city coming in next hour, talking sex and love.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Mikhail Gershteyn is not only a colleague of ours at WXXI and Senior Operations technician but he is a filmmaker, an engineer.

He's he has produced films here and in Ukraine, and now he's back in Ukraine.

And as we show you some of the video, we'll show you the Air Raid Sirens video.

Then we'll show you there's one that says, they told people, don't use the elevator.

So let's start with the air raid sirens.

Mikhail tell us about what you've been hearing and seeing.

And we'll share if you're on YouTube.

You know, just the kind of look at it here.

you know, again, a beautiful, cloudless sky that we're seeing here.

How often are you hearing air raid sirens?

>> that's.

That wasn't Kyiv.

And there was a a little.

Well, it wasn't surprised.

Honestly after the first few days being in Ukraine, you stop being surprised for the air sirens.

Although in in Odessa I heard it a couple times.

And then in Mykolaiv once or twice.

but in Kyiv, that was like my kind of welcome.

Welcome to Kyiv.

air siren.

and I thought that maybe it's a check.

Maybe they're checking.

but apparently in Rome, they they pretty loudly telling you that they this is the airstrike alert.

don't use the elevator and stuff like that.

And, I mean, you can show it later, but the the one which was a bit worried.

There was the, the, the night before.

Secretary general of NATO was supposed to were coming to to Kyiv to speak to the Ukrainian parliament and everybody online were talking about, oh, we will have the life, what they call the life anti-missile.

person.

They thought that the route is coming.

The Russians not attacking.

In addition, the Trump promised that Russia going to take a break for a week, which, as President Zelensky said, the Russian week probably last for days.

and that night, right around midnight, maybe around the time I saw I've heard the alarm.

And then I saw the traces of the anti-drone system.

Not far.

Pretty much not far.

You can.

You could hear the the sounds.

and then when I went downstairs in the lobby, we heard more and we stayed in the lobby until we didn't go to the bomb shelter.

The hotel had the bomb shelter, but we just stayed in the lobby.

I think until about 1:00 in the morning.

And then I went back in the room and stayed up until about three, waiting until, like, was going.

But every time you could hear either siren or the sounds of anti-drone system on the distance, you could hear probably what looked like a more powerful, maybe anti-missile systems, anti-rocket systems like Patriot, probably.

but I was far, far away.

And then in the morning, we learned that the one of the memorials not far from hotel was damaged a little bit.

Luckily they were more power outages in Kyiv and a few more cities like Dnipro, Kharkiv.

and in those cities, they they were reported people who were killed during the attack.

And as I mentioned before, the the young kids the 218 year olds I think in Zaporizhzhia, I may be wrong, but, you live through that.

You you learn to figure out what the best and the.

Every time I go to bed, I have my laptop packed and kind of ready to walk away if I need to.

Yeah.

>> Yeah, I understand.

>> I in in Kyiv.

I lived on the fifth floor.

So you're going downstairs, and then you have to go up?

not using elevator.

I need to go back to gym.

To exercise?

Yeah.

>> Don't don't make me laugh at this.

Mikhail, I want to show another clip of video that you have taken on this trip to Ukraine of Russian tanks here.

Can you describe what we're going to see in this video?

Here?

>> Do we have it?

Did we just lose them?

Anybody I think we're seeing.

There you are.

I got you back there again Mikhail.

Is is in Ukraine and power has been in and out.

We know that.

So that's part of the deal here.

So I think we got you back Mikhail.

What are we looking at in this piece of video that you sent of Russian tanks?

>> That's the the the square in front of the sent Vladimir's church.

And this is the monument to Princess Olga and the Carolyn Manno.

Those who created the alphabet.

And so it's a it's a very small exhibit of the burned Russian tanks and the military equipment.

The it was much bigger, larger what they call the cemetery.

Probably, probably the right way to call it somewhere outside of somewhere.

But you can see what they were bringing to Ukraine to try to break it.

And at the beginning of the war Ukraine didn't have those Abrams and leopards and the F-16s and Patriot systems and, M777 but this is a drone, actually, that's the drones.

They send every pretty much every night in Ukrainian city by hundreds.

And they I think this is more modernized.

version.

It carries up to 90kg, I think of the explosives, maybe more.

And one of them and again, destroy a the high, high rising building part, part of the high rise building.

there are videos and pictures and all over the internet with the damages.

That one drone can make.

>> Yeah.

>> It's amazing.

>> it it is pretty remarkable.

And in a moment, we're going to get back to Mikhail's video, if especially if you're watching on on our YouTube page there.

It's pretty remarkable to see this.

our colleague Mikhail Gershteyn, who is a documentary filmmaker himself, and he's Ukrainian, is in Ukraine right now.

And joining us live from Ukraine, David and Ovid writes to say, one of the worst parts of all of this is that my country, the United States, has abandoned Ukraine.

To the Russians, this is shameful and despicable.

I've never been more ashamed of my country.

That's from.

I'm going to ask both of you.

I'll start with you, Mikhail.

you're in Ukraine right now.

You've been there multiple times since the invasion.

Has the conversation about the United States changed when you talk to Ukrainians, is there a different feeling about the United States now than there was two, three even coming up on four years ago?

>> The most common, the most common question I've been asked, what's wrong with you guys to elect what we have?

there is there is a disappointment, obviously.

that Ukraine loses one of the powerful allies during this war and in probably one of the crucial times a lot of critics.

This is the conversations probably going to go on and on and on about this.

you probably can guess my personal opinion, but I'm going to keep it to myself for now.

>> Okay.

Yeah, but.

I.

>>.

>> Let me just jump in.

I, I don't want you to feel like you have to wait in on politics.

I, I, I think it's interesting and informative.

It's instructive to hear that the most common responses.

What's wrong with you guys?

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> It's pretty bad.

I'm.

I'm with David there.

there was a period of time when I was very proud that I became American citizen.

And for Ukrainian Jew coming to America and achieved something like to come back and work for television.

to go back, do filmmaking I was really proud of my achievements.

And I was proud to become an American citizen.

And now honestly, I've felt like to apologize to some of my friends.

As a matter of fact, in Odessa, I met with my former classmates, and first thing I said, I'm sorry that America abandoned you.

but there are citizens and people in America who are not.

And RocMaidan one of them.

As a matter of fact one of my friends owns the Charity Foundation.

in Ukraine, in Europe and Ukraine.

And they just received a big amount of the handy handicap chairs and the crutches and other medical, , stuff with the RocMaidan label.

And I looked at it and I go, RocMaidan that's that's that's from that's from Rochester, where I live.

and that was pride.

Seriously, that I know people in RocMaidan Vladimir and his wife, Yulia.

Elena.

many more.

And I felt such a warmth that here in Ukraine, I see a small piece of Rochester.

And right in front of my eyes well, on the picture, he showed me a picture.

But people.

Yeah, many, many disappointed.

I I'm disappointed.

of a a United States abandoning Ukraine.

And I really hope it will change.

>> Elena.

>> Anything.

>> Anything you want to add to that?

Elena?

>> I mean, we can all talk about disappointment today.

Two years ago.

Four years ago.

Right?

Because neither us nor Europe stepped up and helped with, to the extent that was necessary to win the war.

>> Four years ago.

>> Throughout the whole four.

>> Years.

>> Throughout the whole four years, we see it.

There's a lot of good talk.

There was a lot of promises.

There was a lot of condemnation, though not from this administration, unfortunately.

but the level of help that is necessary to end the war and to help Ukraine really has not been shown.

I do have to say that on a human level, we can't complain because Americans as human are helping humans of Ukraine.

So and I'm speaking from a standpoint of, of someone who works with the nonprofit organization that helps Ukraine.

So we're extremely grateful to individuals that help us.

And so, for instance, right now we are in a process of buying another ambulance, and we got the funds from the greater good funds from the First Unitarian Church in Rochester.

And that was so humbling and so, so touching to see their kindness.

So on a human level, we still are very, very grateful because Americans are good to Ukrainians.

Administration.

No comments.

I mean, it would be a completely different conversation.

>> if people want to help and support RocMaidan, what can they do?

How do they get in touch with you?

>> So the best way is to go to our website, RocMaidan or.

and email us, get in touch with us.

We have a lot of requests of, we would like to do a fundraiser for you.

How do we do that?

And we can help out with that.

they can invite us to speak about our organization.

They can come and volunteer at our Webster warehouse.

And any help?

No help is too big or too small.

>> So let's let's get back to Mikhail's videos.

And if you're again, if you're joining us on YouTube, you'll see the video there.

But we're talking to Mikhail Gershteyn, WXXI colleague who's Ukrainian, who is in Ukraine and has been shooting video since he got there.

And the wall of Fallen defenders is something I want to take a look at here.

Now.

Earlier we showed you the the memorial, this outdoor space with a lot of flags that denote people who have died and how big that that memorial has grown in the last almost four years.

The wall of fallen Defenders is a wall that has a lot of photos.

and, Mikhail, can you talk a little bit about this?

>> Oh, yeah.

well, this is you saw the flags and these are the pictures of those flags pretty much.

Those are faces.

of fallen.

I call them warriors because they are warriors.

And since the first time I was there in 22, even that wall getting bigger that wall used for officials when they come, the president of President Zelensky sometimes come here to put the flowers or something more memorable.

that wall is actually part of that same Vladimir's church and monastery, and it goes on and on and on to, like, the end of that which goes down there.

when I was shooting that video, there were in the very end, there were police officers putting a little candles and when I asked, I think they were mentioning that they put in those candles to the photographs of police officers who went to the front lines and were of all involved there.

so I tried to find a picture of one person I know personally who fell, but unfortunately, I couldn't so it's kind of sad.

I start shooting when I went to the middle, but I kept looking for some time until I said until I start getting colder and colder.

because the temperature were like -15 or -16 at that point.

And Celsius, which is pretty cold., but yeah, those are the memorials.

either with these paintings or with the big pictures in in the Alley of Heroes, like here in Khmelnytskyi.

they pretty much in every city different ways, different architecture of that.

But people remember their neighbors, let's put it this way.

Neighbors who went to war to defend Ukrainian democracy, defend Ukrainian freedom and this is not like some big words.

This is the this is true and you mentioned the this past four years, Ukraine been have been the shield for the whole Europe and democracy.

But the war goes on and on since 2014, since the invasion of Crimea, annexation of Crimea, whatever you call it.

And since then, world didn't do anything to help Ukraine.

only full scale invasion pushed for help to come to Ukraine and Ukrainian army and Ukrainian people.

So.

>> Yeah.

And I'll jump in here and I'll ask you just Elena looking at.

So for our listeners who can't see the video, if you think about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington for Americans, it's a wall of names.

And it is a very emotional place for a lot of families just to find those names, to find the people that they know have lost.

This is a wall that in some ways evokes that.

But it's faces.

I mean, it brings it so starkly real, and every one of those people has a family.

You look at that.

The wall of faces, of people who've died in the last four years, and you feel like it is absolutely needless.

Just I wonder what you think looking at that, Elena.

>> I actually was quite disturbed by by the footage to me, just the fact that there are tanks, burned, tanks next to the church and that has been normalized.

It shouldn't be the wall of names, the wall of of faces.

I'm sure it's just a fragment of those who've died over the four years.

It's disturbing and it's very, very sad.

But it is the reality that Ukrainians live through.

And there is right now no way out.

And we hope that the world will find a way to tame Russia and to bring peace to Ukraine.

>> One more piece of video to share, Mikhail, tell us about the what your experience was at Sophia Square.

>> Yeah.

well, this is take two.

Actually, the being a professional.

Right.

So the day before, I thought I shot the short historical piece talking about the one of the oldest churches, which is now Sophia Saint Sophia.

but apparently I just double pushed the button, and I recorded selfie and then talk for 2.5 minutes.

so I came.

Yeah.

so being a professional and so I being a professional next day, the following day and I came back and spent those 2.5 minutes retaking that shot.

So this is the square where the monument to Bogdan Khmelnytskyi is covered.

apparently one of the famous Ukrainian leaders back in the days in 17th century, I think 16 17th century.

he, that beautiful, as I said, one of the oldest.

I can't.

I been a historian, I should remember, but it's one of the oldest one.

which for a period of time was belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church and then was retaken back to the what it should be the Ukrainian church.

And it's not just the church.

It's also a museum.

the day I was there, the day before it was closed I still dream to go there, to go inside because there are photographs and some of the walls, , you can see the scrapings by hand made by the people from centuries ago.

the, the pretty preserved.

And it's very beautiful to see this to me, not just like the filmmaker, a historian, there was significant to actually work on that square.

and honestly, when I walk on that square a little bit further to the side street, there is a sight to the stadium, the soccer stadium where my favorite Ukrainian team used to play.

And when I was a kid, my uncles all of us, we used to either walk down there or walk down the towards towards the stadium to watch the games.

When we were visiting Kyiv and so it's not just touching the part of the, big history.

It's also touching the part of my family history to.

>> All right, so down to our last minute or so, where are you going next?

And when do you plan to come back to Rochester?

Mikhail?

>> The next.

so tomorrow I'm meeting with the teachers of Khmelnytskyi.

Well, I don't know how many will come.

and then I'm going back to Odesa and February 10th in Odessa.

The Ukrainian version of the film, which I'm finishing working on between the powers going down will be premiered at my friend's Museum of Genocides, which was also opened during the war.

so I know we invited a bunch of people, a lot of people from different circles, including my friends and classmates, and hopefully I will be back in February.

Back at the xAI.

February 16th, that my first day back to work.

So that's that's the plan.

>> All right, come give us a handshake and a hug and be safe.

Okay.

>> I'll try my best.

And.

>> Thank you.

>> Okay.

Hello to everyone.

>> That's Mikhail Gershteyn.

WXXI.

Colleague, native Ukrainian back in his native Ukraine.

Joining us live for the hour, you know, dealing with power outages in and out.

And Elena Dilai who's been with us board secretary for RocMaidan.

Someday.

Someday the world will be different and anyone will be able to go visit beautiful Ukraine.

>> And we hope for that.

>> Well, thank you.

And again, the website for people can learn more about RocMaidan is what.

>> RocMaidan dot.

>> M a I'd RocMaidan.

Org.

We'll have it in our show notes as well.

Thank you for the work you're doing.

>> Thank you very much for having us.

>> All right.

More Connections coming up in just a moment.

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