Mother recalls fleeing Russian invasion; "Even if you leave Ukraine, war is in your heart"
BOSTON - It's an anniversary Anna Geagea never thought she'd have to experience, one year since her home country of Ukraine was gripped by war.
"Today it's like I'm back to that day, to that fear," Geagea told WBZ.
She recalls memories of harrowing nights hunkering down in the bathroom with her 8-year-old daughter Alex amid air raid sirens. Her home in the city of Mariupol destroyed.
"It's not a life to sit with my daughter in a basement or bathroom, no education, there was consistent fear and I didn't sleep," she said.
As a mother, Geagea says she made the difficult decision to drive with her daughter over the Polish border, and four months later made it to Massachusetts with the help of a sponsor where she says they can be safe for the two years they're allowed.
"Even if you leave Ukraine, war is in your heart because it's my country," Geagea said.
The anniversary was also observed on the streets of Boston and in cities across the country with activists calling for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war.
"The only way for the war to end eventually or now is through negotiated settlement," said Paul Shannon of Massachusetts Peace Action.
In Boston, a crowd gathered in Downtown Crossing to protest the war and call for peace.
"We should be promoting conversation, promoting understanding, and demand diplomacy," State Rep. Mike Connolly told the crowd.
Protestors marched to the Federal Building bringing letters with a message calling for leadership to the offices of senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and saying the Biden administration could be using more leverage to help negotiate peace.
"There needs to be conditions for the money we keep providing," said Terrence Cudrey, a protestor calling for peace.
Ann Geagea has found her own peace here with community support but is anxious to return home.
"Ukraine doesn't want to give up, at some point Russia has to understand they cannot win this war as easily as they had hoped," she said.