A blue and yellow wave washed over Boston Common Feb. 23 to mark three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hundreds of protesters gathered to demand U.S. support for Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
“I want Russia to pay for my brothers who are fighting and sacrificing their lives and health,” said Markiian Sanotskyi, a Ukrainian American who has family in Ukraine.
Last week, President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” on Truth Social, which came after Saudi Arabia hosted a high-profile meeting between U.S. and Russian officials about the war without Zelensky present. Trump also claimed that Ukraine had three years to “finish the war” and that it “should have never started it”—a false claim.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces attacked Ukraine using air strikes and ground invasion, escalating a decade-long conflict and resulting in hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties, and over a million total casualties since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal. As of 2025, Russia has seized about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
In response to Trump’s actions, Zelensky said that Ukraine would not recognize any agreements made without its participation. In a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump said the war is nearing its endgame, and that he might travel to Russia soon.
At the Parkman Bandstand, local officials criticized the Trump administration for its handling of the war and the country’s relationship with Ukraine. U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts said in a speech at the rally that the Democrat party remains loyal to Ukraine.
“I never thought I would live to see the day when an American president sides with tyranny against freedom,” he said. “Donald Trump is trying to sell out Ukraine, and we must not let him.”
Protest attendee Oksana Petrushyama said the growing rift between the U.S. administration and Ukraine worries her.
“We had hope because we believed the United States was supporting us and now we’re losing that hope,” she said. “I don’t think that we will give up fighting but now we’re just on our own.”
Much of Trump’s reversal in aid is rooted in economics. He has claimed that the U.S. donated $350 billion in aid to Ukraine. However, according to a U.S. interagency oversight group, Congress has allocated only a little more than half of that, about $183 billion, since 2022. Out of that, $69 billion has been spent on military aid. The U.S. provided 42% of all global military aid Ukraine received.
Joe Crowley arrived at the rally with his bicycle covered with yellow and blue patches, a Ukrainian duck soldier standing guard on the handlebars. Although not from Ukraine himself, Crowley has been advocating for the country since the beginning of the war.
“I was really inspired by how resilient and courageous a lot of Ukrainians were. We wouldn’t have a Ukraine [without] brave people fighting for freedom and democracy,” Crowley said.
Crowly believes the U.S. should continue sending aid to Ukraine.
“Western weapons and Ukrainian blood will protect Ukrainian freedom, the fewer weapons in support they have, the more Ukrainian blood will be needed,” he said.
State Rep. Mike Kushmerek, a Democrat representing Worcester, also spoke at the rally, mainly emphasizing the importance of having an ally in Ukraine.
“ For those of us who live in a democratic, free world, we’d like to think that there are those who would still fight for us. Not just here in America, but around the world,” he said. “Each and every day, it is the armed forces of Ukraine and the people of Ukraine that are fighting for the whole world.”
Demonstrator Cathy Zadoretzky marched with a sign showing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, playing a Trump-shaped cello.
Zadoretzky has family in Ukraine. She quoted Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan’s “Sky Above Kharkiv: dispatches from the Ukrainian Front” to describe her family’s situation.
“With one fist filled with agony and the other with hope,” Zadoretzky said.
“[Trump is doing the opposite of what he said he wanted to do,” she added. “He is actually trying to extort Ukraine and extort the American people as well—destroy our democracy and create chaos in Europe.”
