How the war in Ukraine is being felt in Sacramento by those of us caught in the crossfire

The Sacramento region is home to a large Russian-Ukrainian diaspora, which is deeply affected by the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

My father was born and raised in Ukraine. I was born in Belarus. My wife was born and raised in Russia. Today we live in Northern California and are watching with strong emotions the terrible events playing out between our native countries.

Being the editor-in-chief of the Slavic Sacramento media outlet and comprehensively informing the ethnic community in the Sacramento region for two decades by now, I never had seen and felt such unity and, at the same time, a total confusion of opinions among the Slavic immigrant diasporas.

All of this is due to the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the neighboring independent country of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

There are 20,000 Russian-speaking residents, and 21,000 Ukrainian-speaking residents in Sacramento County. The Greater Sacramento region, which includes Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties collectively has nearly 70,000 residents from the former Soviet Union, according to census figures. But Slavic leaders think that number could be as high as 100,000 because, as the Sacramento Bee reported in 2017, “some Soviet refugees are reluctant to be counted by census takers.”

The local Slavic diaspora has close ties with its historical motherlands. There are about 100 Slavic churches in the region, with a total number of parishioners of about 40,000.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 2.5 million Russians and 1 million Ukrainians live in the United States.

The first thing to say about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is that its active phase has been playing out since 2014 when Russian troops occupied the peninsula of Crimea, my father’s homeland. Then Russia had a so-called referendum in an attempt to legitimize its occupation of the peninsula. Then active hostilities started in the eastern part of Ukraine, the Donbas region, when Russian troops began to gradually bomb cities, blow up hospitals and destroy residential buildings as they advanced. However, Russian officials never admitted that Russian troops were waging war in Donbas.

In 2017, I visited the region of hostilities, named ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation zone), and observed firefights between the Russian and Ukrainian military forces. I heard the explosions of shells, encountered people who had lost loved ones and I also helped refugees who had lost their homes, and everything they possessed.

That is why our organization joins Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Uzbek, Jewish, Lithuanian and other ethnic diasporas in helping Ukraine as much as we can.

The Slavic diaspora sends money, food, medicine body armor, and even strategic drones to Ukraine. A lot of non-profit organizations and private entities assist refugees fleeing war in Ukraine, and persecution in Russia and Belarus.

My Russian friends who live in California are confused and scared to talk to their relatives in Russia about the war in Ukraine, or even to post anything about it on social media because in Russia the war is officially named a “special military operation.”,

The word “war” is automatically marked as “fake” in Russia and may even lead to years behind bars for those who use the word. Many Russians have to use some sort of code when they speak with each other, just like during the Cold War era. Our community historically faced misinformation and disinformation.

In this context, Slavic Sacramento recently reported that our website was banned by government officials in Russia just because we are doing our best to provide our audience with up-to-date information about the war.

In truth, the war across the ocean has greatly affected our local Slavic community in Sacramento. Various conflicts have arisen among immigrants in our region and in the Bay Area.

I personally heard so many devastating stories of families breaking up due to political differences. Even before Putin’s latest aggression, people were fighting each other and even dying over deep conflicts within our communities. For example, in 2014, in Palo Alto, a native of Belarus was killed in a brawl because he spoke Russian, and not Ukrainian, according to Bay Area media reports.

Right after that, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones gathered representatives of the Slavic community and local church leaders in Sacramento in what Jones called a “pro-active step” to avoid the same sort of tragedy here.

Against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation, it is extremely difficult to cover the events of the local diaspora in an unbiased way. It’s easy to get pulled into the emotional crossfire of criticism and allegations levied by people from various sides of the diaspora.

Putin crossed a red line when he started the war, and nothing can ever excuse or justify his actions.

None of us wants war, but war has come to our homes.

This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "How the war in Ukraine is being felt in Sacramento by those of us caught in the crossfire."