Hymns and Prayers for “Heroes Who Fight”
(ANSA) – Naples, March 6 – “Ukrainian Slava!” Glory to Ukraine! From the portico of the Basilica of San Francesco di Paula, Julia lit the square to which she responded with the phrase “Glory to our heroes!”. About 500 Ukrainians from Naples gather a flag of about 20 meters, which forms the letter T with another large banner. Most of them are women, such as Julia and Roxolana, who organized the demonstration, representing the approximately 15,000 Ukrainians residing in Campania, Italy’s largest community. For almost three hours they sing, pray and listen to the pleas and testimonies of their comrades who have just arrived from Ukraine. Consul General Maxim Kovalenko called on refugees to contact civil protection and local authorities with confidence. “They are afraid of having their passports taken away,” explains Roksolana. In the square there are banners against Putin (“Stop terroRussia”), the unanimous demand, “I was born, close the sky,” in English and Italian, and two or three rainbow flags with the phrase peace, which a peddler offers in vain.
The line is resistance. “Give us your weapons, our soldiers on the ground can win if the airspace is closed,” says Oksana Gabalo, a philologist, vice president of the Ukrainian School in Naples, who has been in Italy for 17 years. Valentina, 15, a Ukrainian mother and a Neapolitan father speaking into the microphone. Learn the Ukrainian language at the school hosted by the Salesian parents. On the square there are also Belarusian flags of solidarity and the red and black flag of the “Ukrainian National Army” of Stepan Bandera, Hero of the Fatherland. “He taught us,” say two women from the Northwest Counties. A boy drew it on our faces. The square kneels down to recite the prayers of the fallen. Singer Rina Irmak, who fled from Mariupol, asks Russian mothers to “stop their children.” Julia thanks the residents of Naples for their “big heart”, and then everyone sings the national anthem. Applause, and the Ukrainians in Naples shouted again: “NATO, close the skies! (Ansa).
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