Ukrainians’ Plea: “Do Something,” The Immigrant Story

When Russian invaded Ukraine in February, I watched my friend, Tatiana Terdal, jump to the aid of fellow Ukrainian Americans, organizing rallies and fundraisers and educating the public on social media. I was excited about telling her story for The Immigrant Story.

To write this piece, I attended a moving rally organized by Terdal. Then, during our interview, which took place about a week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Terdal was so tired she spoke lying on a couch in her home, with her eyes closed. Here’s the story:

 

Fighting back tears at a rally she organized a few days after the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tatiana Terdal still managed to draw laughs from the 300or so people who had gathered at Portland’s Salmon Street Springs Fountain on a cold, rainy afternoon.

“I promise you, we will have a great festival when Putin’s troops are out of Ukraine. We will sing and dance and maybe there will be free borscht the way there was free borscht when Stalin died, and everyone will be invited,” she said.

Terdal, a native of Ternopil, Ukraine, grew up in Cherkasy, in the central part of the country that is currently under siege by Russian military forces. Just hours after the incursion began, she pulled the Feb. 26 rally together in response to pleas by Ukrainian-Americans for her to take action.

The morning after the invasion, Terdal had slept less than two hours. She managed to get her two teen boys off to school, in spite of a surprise snowfall in Portland.

Read the entire story: Portland Ukrainians’ Plea: Do Something