Travel Blog

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday afternoon at the foot of Clematis Street in West Palm Beach for the Rally in Support of Ukraine. Many people were draped in the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine; one man wore the tri-color Lithuanian flag.

“I’m from Kaunas,” he told me. “But I want to show that Lithuania supports Ukraine.” His Ukrainian wife stood nearby, with their four-month-old black Lab. They live in downtown Miami but want to go back to Lithuania. “We’re waiting to see what happens,” he said.

The booth of the Ukrainian Association of Florida handed out small Ukrainian flags to everyone. A few women, and even men, were the traditional white blouses embroidered with flowery red designs – a mode of dress that only increased their handsomeness. One young man with a serious expression sported a T-shirt that read: “Be brave like Ukraine.” One woman carried on her shoulder a bag that was made to look like a book: George Orwell’s 1984.   

A Russian flag lay on the ground, surrounded by cones holding yellow CAUTION tape.

There were songs and speeches, including one by a rabbi and one by a representative of the mayor’s office. I wondered why Fort Lauderdale hadn’t hosted the rally, as it is more centrally located.

Someone held up a picture of Putin and Trump kissing on the lips. It was a pastiche of the famous photograph of Leonid Brezhnev greeting Erich Honecker (which was later immortalized by a painting on the Berlin Wall). That it was being displayed just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago made its mockery even greater.

Before leaving, I saw a young woman – one of the speakers – draped in a flag of black and red. I asked her what it was. She said it was the flag of the Ukrainian force that fought against the Soviet Union. Also, she said, when the small Ukrainian flag on soldiers’ uniforms gets drenched in blood the colors change to black and red.

She has been here seven years, she told me, but the two young women next to her, draped in Ukrainian flags, had arrived more recently. And now, because of Trump, they weren’t sure that they would be able to stay. I was hit with a feeling of sadness and helplessness. Then the woman, like many of the people I spoke to, warmly thanked me for my support of her country.   

To end the rally, everyone stood, with the flashlights on their cellphones lit, under a banner that read: “PUTIN to STAND TRIAL for WAR CRIMES.”