Unending war fuels efforts in Latvia to help Ukraine

RIGA, Latvia -- Russia's unprovoked assault on Ukraine has given further impetus to a growing movement in Lativa that rejects Russian influence in favour of the government's pro-European stance.

The Ukrainian community in Latvia is one of the country's largest ethnic groups, comprising 2.5% of the total population, or about 55,199 people, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Latvia.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, members of this community and of the wider Latvian population have stepped up to support Ukraine in various ways.

Latvia's support for Ukraine dates back to the Euromaidan protests starting in November 2013, when outraged Ukrainians rejected then-president Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign a political and economic agreement between the European Union and Ukraine.

Protestors accused Yanukovych of buckling under Kremlin pressure to forge closer ties with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU or EAEU).

The Euromaidan protests galvanised the Ukrainian diaspora in Latvia, said Tatyana Lazda, who was born in Sumy province, Ukraine, but has lived in Latvia for about 40 years.

"We have two organisations here: the Ukraine Support Society and the Congress of Ukrainians of Latvia, and we've been working together since [2013]," said Lazda, a board member of the Ukraine Support Society.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and occupied part of Donbas, Ukrainian-Latvians banded together to collect donations for pro-Ukrainian government forces and for hospitals treating wounded Ukrainian volunteers.

Many residents of Latvia are helping groups that support Ukraine, Lazda said.

"There are people we've never even seen personally," she said. "There are some people we know only through Facebook and some people we don't know at all."

"But when we put out the word that we're raising funds to go for different needs, they always send money," she said.

Latvia has also received Ukrainian troops wounded since the full-scale invasion. After receiving treatment in trauma care and microsurgery centres, many have returned to Ukraine to continue fighting, Lazda said.

One of the soldiers wounded in Ukraine since February 2022 -- a Ukrainian of Georgian descent named Vakhtang -- stayed with Lazda and her family for more than two and a half months.

"He was always communicating with other Ukrainian servicemen, and my friends kept telling me I needed to do something to try to calm him and create comfortable conditions for him," she said.

But when Lazda approached Vakhtang on this matter, he told her, "Don't worry, everything will be fine, we're going to win. I'm going to get up on my feet and go back to Ukraine."

"And that's just what happened," she said.

"In January he went back to his unit, where he works in provisioning," Lazda said. "Would you believe it, when he's driving, he steers with his left hand and he uses his right hand to make his wounded leg work so it can step on the gas pedal."

40,000 Ukrainian refugees in Latvia

At the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, Ukrainian-Latvian physician Yana Streletsa oversaw a foundation to aid the victims of the conflict, which was raising money to treat the wounded.

It came to light that some of the wounded had undergone unsuccessful operations in Ukrainian military hospitals, Streletsa said, and these patients were transported to Latvia for reconstructive surgery.

Treatment at the Microsurgery Centre in Riga is costly and protracted, but Latvia now has approved a government programme under which any citizen of Ukraine may receive the same medical treatment as Latvians.

By some counts, about 40,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Latvia since the Russian army launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022, she said.

"The whole situation is very sad for those who went through the Russian filtration," Streletsa said, referring to the forced deportations and disappearances that have occurred in Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine.

Russian and proxy forces "have interrogated, detained and forcibly deported" up to 1.6 million Ukrainians, including thousands of children -- taking them to filtration camps "to suppress their resistance", the US State Department said in an August 25 report.

Inside the filtration camps, Russian forces often strip-search Ukrainians for "nationalistic" tattoos, confiscate their passports and search their cell phones, it added.

In many cases, Russian volunteers help Ukrainians cross over into Latvia, Streletsa said, based on the account of a woman from Enerhodar who was with her two children in a camp for Ukrainian refugees near Pskov, Russia.

"But there also are people from Mariupol who were taken to Russia and sent to Khabarovsk [in the Russian Far East]," Streletsa said, adding that the fate of these families is not known.

The woman from Enerhodar once thought her city was the safest place on Earth, Streletsa said.

"They were next to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, so they thought, who would strike it? They were actually expecting refugees from Kyiv to come there, but everything turned out differently," she said.

Workers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have been stripped of their rights and are reportedly treated like slaves, Streletsa said.

Latvians fighting for Ukraine

Ukraine Support Society volunteer Jānis Ratkevičs liaises with Latvian volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainian troops.

About 35 Latvian legionnaires have gone to Ukraine in the past year, and there are 16 volunteers there at present, according to Ratkevičs.

The Latvian volunteers are now fighting alongside Ukrainian forces from Kupiansk, Kharkiv province, along the route approaching Donetsk, he said.

"The people who are taking part in the operations move along the entire front line," he said. "Our guys are concerned about the shortage of munitions, but they're glad that the Russian army is in the same situation."

Ratkevičs also helps to raise money and collect items for the Ukrainian army.

The society has collected about €100,000, which it has used to pay for clothing, gear and transportation. Donations generally have not exceeded €200, but one company contributed €5,000, he said.

"But our organisation isn't the only one helping Ukraine," Ratkevičs noted, pointing out, "Latvia has contributed a total of 1% of its GDP to aid Ukraine."

"That doesn't even take into account that municipalities have sent Ukraine many vehicles, while some large companies have raised as much as €5 million," he said.