SWAMPSCOTT — A longtime town resident who immigrated from Ukraine is raising funds to send medications and protective gear to his hometown, as the war with Russia continues.
“The main thing that Putin and his clique had not taken into account is that a whole generation was born in Ukraine in 30 years (after the collapse of the Soviet Union) that is used to democracy and freedom of speech, including Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine, true patriots of their motherland, ready to fight to death,” said Yakov Glauberman, who lives in Swampscott.
Glauberman, 74, emigrated from Dnipro, Ukraine to the United States with his wife and three children in 1995. They first lived in Lynn, and then moved to Swampscott.
He still has relatives and friends in Dnipro and has been back to Ukraine many times.
“I can assure you, there is no antisemitism in Ukraine now. Their president is a Jew,” said Glauberman, who is Jewish. “There are no Nazis there as the Putin propaganda blares in Russia, zombifying its citizens.”
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine chose its own path, following the laws of democracy and its constitution, starting with its first president, Leonid Kravchuk, and continuing with current President Volodymyr Zelensky, Glauberman said.
In 2007, Glauberman established the Ukrainian-American Society for Cultural and Business Relations, hoping to foster and develop cooperation between the two countries.
“Many didn’t know where Ukraine was and mistook it for Russia,” Glauberman said. “It wasn’t easy to work.”
Over the years, he facilitated cooperation between American transportation company RailRunner and the Ukrainian Ministry of Transportation; connected Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant (Yuzhmash) in Dnipro with American partners; organized concerts in the Boston area and brought L. Varpakhovsky Theater from Montreal to Dnipro.
Glauberman had future plans for his organization, but the war prevented their realization.
With almost 1 million residents before the Russian invasion, Dnipro is the fourth-largest city in Ukraine, after Kiev, Kharkiv and Odessa. It is located on both banks of the river Dnipro in the central part of Ukraine.
In Soviet times, Dnipro was called Dnepropetrovsk and was a big industrial city specializing in machine-building, metalworking, defense and aerospace. When Russia attacked Ukraine on three fronts from the east, north and south, Dnipro became a hub for displaced Ukrainians and the wounded.
The city has not escaped Russian airstrikes. On April 10, Russians completely destroyed Dnipro’s airport by firing rockets.
“Putin’s special operation has been going on for more than a month now, but in reality this is a genocide of the Ukrainian people which consists of more than 100 nationalities, including people who speak Russian language,” said Glauberman.
Glauberman’s daughter, Yelena Trubnikova, was visiting Dnipro when the war broke out. She decided to stay and volunteer for a local organization that helps get necessities to residents and refugees and distribute bread and other food items.
Trubnikova, who worked as a medical assistant in San Francisco, told her father that she has already gotten used to the air-defense sirens going off all the time and that the bread factory still has flour to make bread.
Currently, Glauberman is looking for ways to help his country of origin and the Ukrainian friends, relatives and members of the Territorial Defense Forces, a volunteer military organization, who are asking for help with medications, helmets or bullet-proof vests.
He is asking anyone who has access to medications or local hospitals that might be interested in helping to contact him at 781-738-5464. To donate money for helmets and bullet-proof vests, please transfer to Yakov Glauberman via PayPal to [email protected].
Those who wish to donate for food provisions and necessities for Dnipro’s residents can send money via PayPal to Yelena Trubnikova at [email protected].
“Many think that Ukraine should sign a peace treaty with Russia to save its people. But I think Russia must unconditionally withdraw all its troops from the whole territory of Ukraine, including Donbas, Luhansk and Crimea, and indemnify all Ukrainian victims and their families for moral, physical and material damage,” said Glauberman. “I hope for real peace.”
