Shepherdstown residents protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine at The Wall on German Street last Sunday. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Drivers honked their horns in solidarity with the 50 community members who had rallied together in front of The Wall on German Street Sunday afternoon, in opposition to Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 21.

According to Ray Smock, who is also the interim director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education at Shepherd University, he was one of many of the protesters to make their own signs for the rally, inspired by Ukraine’s culture and people.

“Since the sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine, I made a sunflower poster for the occasion, several [copies] of which have found their way into merchant windows on German Street,” Smock said. “Considering that 100,000 protesters marched in Berlin, our Shepherdstown event was hardly in the same class [size-wise], but it was [in the same class] in terms of heartfelt support for Ukraine!”

According to protester Nancy Stewart, of Shepherdstown, the First They Take Ukraine, Then They Take the U.S.: Show up for Democracy Rally was a last-minute decision on the part of her partner, Mark Kohut.

“It was a spur of the moment decision, but we had a really good turnout!” Stewart said.

Kohut himself said that he was surprised by the good turnout for the rally, since it was only advertised for about 20 hours on Facebook, prior to the beginning of the event.

“The fact of doing it didn’t come to me until Friday evening. By then, it was too late to schedule it for Saturday, so we settled on planning to hold it on Sunday, midday, so people would be able to see us,” Kohut said, before referring to the reason for the event’s immediacy — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s capital city, Kiev. “It seemed timely to hold it on Sunday, as everything was happening in Kiev.”

Although Kohut is three-quarters Ukrainian, he said his heritage was not the reason for his holding the solidarity rally.

“I am a bad Ukrainian. I was an American kid. I don’t remember the heritage or the village in Ukraine where my father grew up. But if any democracy, if any country was ruthlessly attacked under criminal violations of international law, I would have had a rally for that country. You can name it!” Kohut said. “That’s what I think this is about, in Ukraine. It is an attack on democracy. We have to act to protect democracy, wherever it’s attacked.”

While West Virginia became one of 10 states that banned the sale of Russian vodka as of Monday, Kohut said he had been one step ahead of this measure. Prior to the solidarity rally, Kohut had approached the owners of Shepherdstown Liquors, asking them to allow him and his fellow supporters to buy out the store’s stock of the only Russian vodka it carries, Russian Standard, and for the store to then not purchase any more of it until the end of the war.

Shepherdstown Liquors’ Peggah Wilson, who co-owns the business with her brother, agreed to do this, and then decided to take the measure one step further. Through this coming Monday, the store is donating 100 percent of its proceeds from every bottle of vodka, excluding Russian Standard, to CARE’s Ukraine Crisis Fund, which aims to reach four million people with immediate aid and recovery, food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance in Ukraine.

After making the agreement with Wilson, Kohut purchased one of her store’s bottles of Russian Standard, to start off his end of the deal.

“I bought a bottle of it and took it with me to the rally, for people to take a drink of or baptize themselves in or dump out on The Wall,” Kohut said. “Most of them were not bothered with drinking it or baptizing themselves with it, and chose to dump a cap of it onto The Wall.”