By Gretchen Webster

Officials, two Westport brothers who have raised over $2 million in aid for Ukraine and about 200 other people came together Sunday to celebrate and support the nation under attack by Russia for more than a year.

The “LymanAID” event sponsored by Ukraine Aid International — a Westport-based nonprofit started by brothers Brian and Marshall Mayer — thanked donors of money and supplies to Lyman, Westport’s sister city in the besieged eastern European nation. The event took place at the Ukrainian American Club in Southport.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a murderous gangster and we need to stop him,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., one of the guest speakers told the gathering. “He is an aggressor, a murderer and a war criminal.”

There is bipartisan congressional support for providing long-range artillery, tanks and other military equipment to Ukraine, Blumenthal said. And accepting Ukraine as a member of NATO would enhance security for the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, he said.

“It is our fight, too. Putin will keep going against Poland, against Rumania, against Belarus … and we need to stop him.”

Westport First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, who traveled to Lyman in May with Police Chief Foti Koskinas and Easton First Selectman David Bindelglass, told the crowd tragic news had come from Ukraine in the past 24 hours. The city’s marketplace was attacked by Russian bombs killing 10 people and injuring many others.

“I have even more conviction [to support Ukraine] now than I did” when Westport officials first connected with Lyman, through Ukraine Aid International, to provide financial aid and other forms of assistance, Tooker said. “These people are caught in the middle — they are both heroes and victims,” she said of Lyman’s residents.

Westport was the first U.S. municipality to forge sister city ties with a city in Ukraine, Tooker said. Funds raised by Westporters have been used, among other things, to repair six apartment buildings in Lyman, where most of infrastructure has been destroyed.

Bindelglass told the gathering, “You can’t imagine how nice those people are, and how much they need our help. Easton has established sister city ties with Sviatohirsk in Ukraine. 

So far, seven American communities have been matched with Ukrainian counterparts as sister cities since Westport connected with Lyman, according to Katya Wauchope, the director of development for Ukraine Aid International.

Several vendors at the event pledged their sales proceeds to Ukraine Aid International, and a $15,000 pledge was made by an anonymous donor to match other donations, according to Brian Mayer, co-founder of the organization with his brother, Marshall.

UAI focuses on raising money for civilians, and not military aid, said Wauchope. “It’s strictly humanitarian, to rebuild and sustain Ukraine’s infrastructure.”

Some attendees were born in Ukraine or had relatives there, and some came just because they believe supporting Ukraine is important.

Ivanna Vintonyak, a paralegal in the town of Fairfield’s Human Resources Department, was born in Ukraine and came to the U.S. as a child. 

“We love to see how Ukrainian-Americans and Americans in general are supporting the Ukraine,” she said. “We brought our kids who were born in America [to the event] to show them what it means to support Ukraine with singing and dancing … we just want to share our knowledge of all that Ukraine is.”

Serena Chirunomula, also of Fairfield, was there with her brother and children. “We thought this was a very noble event to be part of,” she said. “Offering support of some kind to Ukraine seemed like a beautiful thing to do.”

Visit the Ukraine Aid International website for more information.

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Westport Journal intern Mia Bomback contributed to this article.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.