Ukrainian Minnesotan gives update on the Russian invasion in Ukraine | News
MANKATO, Minn.-On the eve of the United States’ independence celebration, July 4, Ukrainian born and Minnesota resident Viktoriia Grimm reflects on her own county’s fight for freedom.
“I think this is the great reminder to everybody that you have to fight for what you love. We love our country. We love our land and we will not give it up,” Grimm said.
KIMT last spoke with Grimm back in March, nearly a month after Russia’s brutal invasion began.
Since March, the war in Ukraine has raged on, with millions of refugees fleeing the country and thousands of innocents being killed by Russian strikes.
Grimm, who is originally from Kherson, said she spoke with her brother and father in June, pleading for them to leave their hometown as Russian forces closed in.
Kherson is located north of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014 and supplies a large amount of water and electricity to the peninsula, according to Grimm.
“Russia was trying, well not trying, it still in the process to break off that region from Ukraine. So, I think (Russia) is in the process of doing the reform where they are forcefully moving and changing the law to take it away from Ukraine,” Grimm said.
Fortunately, her family fled Kherson to a town in central Ukraine but for how long, she is not sure.
Grimm said Russian forces have taken over vacant buildings, imposing new laws on the residents that still remain.
“I was hearing that Russia was trying to, going through the town to see if the people left properties you know apartments or the houses. They were trying to nationalize it. (Russia) Just like okay, its vacant, now it is going to be ours,” Grimm said. “People are forced to buy Russian ruble and purchase everything in my hometown in Russia currency and then people have to eat and at another point they do not have a choice but I know they are still protesting. They do not want to be part of Russia. I do not want my hometown to be a part of Russia. Kherson has always been Ukraine and it will always stay Ukraine,” Grimm said.
As of Friday, The U.S said it does not believe Russian forces will hold Kherson for long due to local uprisings from residents and the military’s decision to detach more troops to Ukraine’s Donbas Region.