SYRACUSE, N.Y. – On February 20, the Day of the Heavenly Hundred, the Ukrainian Club of Syracuse University planted 100 Ukrainian flags with informational placards on university grounds to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the fallen Euro-Maidan activists who lost their lives at the hands of the Berkut special (riot) police force. These heroes of the Euro-Maidan are now known worldwide as the Heavenly Hundred.
The Euro-Maidan, or Revolution of Dignity, began as a student protest at Independence Square in the fall of 2013. Throughout the winter of 2014, hundreds and thousands continued to gather in this public square to protest the abrupt cancellation of an Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) by the pro-Russian president of Ukraine at that time, Viktor Yanukovych.
February 20, 2014, was the most violent day of the confrontation between civilians and the Berkut, when protesters en route to Ukraine’s Parliament fell victims to a shootout on Instytutska Street by barricaded riflemen.
The members of the Ukrainian Club of Syracuse University also marked Heavenly Hundred Day by showing the award-winning 2015 documentary “Winter on Fire,” which tells the compelling story of the 93-day civic movement that ousted President Yanukovych. The film depicts the extraordinary courage and determination of a diverse yet united populace that included Russian speakers, Ukrainian speakers, Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Lida Hvozda Buniak
The Ukrainian Club of Syracuse University at the screening of the documentary “Winter on Fire” (from left): Taras Colopelnic, Arsen Khanin, Linh Nguyen Phan Bao, Pat Burak (faculty adviser), Yuliia Popyk, Sami Al Abed (president) and Dmytro Kuchirka.
The diversity of Maidan participants is reflected in this academic year’s Ukrainian Club members from Ukraine and Romania: Lin Nguen, Yuliia Popyk, Dima Kuchirka and Sami Al-Abed from Kyiv; Zhanna Lotkina from Kharkiv; Arsen Khanin from Ternopil; and Taras Colopelnic from Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania.
Syracuse University brings thousands of international students to campus every year. According Prof. Patricia Burak, the Ukrainian Club’s faculty advisor, “Students from Ukraine have traditionally sought out each other, and the Ukrainian student club provides a locus for these interests.”
The Ukrainian Club was originally founded in the fall of 1994 by Gregory Lisnyczyj, who is now the vice-president of the Syracuse branch of the Ukrainian Congress committee of America. Accredited by the university the following year, the club initiated numerous events with various guest speakers, among them professors from Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S., Yuri Shcherbak. Mr. Lisnyczyj noted: “I think, most importantly, we brought a bond between students that still lasts today.”
Mr. Lisnyczyj’s thoughts ring true, for 26 years later on a visible snowy knoll, the significance of the Heavenly Hundred was made known thanks to the efforts of students from the Ukrainian Club of Syracuse U.
Lida Hvozda Buniak is president of the Syracuse branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.