Inside the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said thank you over and over.
He chatted at a large table discussing the future of his country’s unprovoked war with Russia with plant and Department of Defense officials, a congressman, a governor, and a U.S. senator.
He toured the downtown behemoth that towers over the edge of South Scranton and personally thanked about 150 gathered factory workers.
With a Sharpie, Zelenskyy even autographed a couple of 155mm artillery shells that routinely make their way to Ukraine’s battlefront with Russia.
“I leaned over and I said, maybe, maybe these will be used against the Russians,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said he told Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy laughed, Casey said.
Outside, supporters, most of them natives of Ukraine or descendants of Ukrainian immigrants, said thank you in their own way.
They showed up, stood in the hot sun waving or wearing blue and yellow Ukrainian flags for two hours or longer before Zelenskyy arrived, never got close enough to see or hear him, and went home as proud as ever.
Speaking in Ukrainian with her native land’s flag draped around her, Valentina Shemchuk, 62, who arrived in Scranton shortly after the war began, said she and her husband wanted to show their support. They joined about 20 at the corner of Orchard Street and Cedar Avenue in South Scranton for the long wait.
“We want to say we stand with Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, that we stand with Ukraine during the day and during the night,” Shemchuk said.
First stop on U.S. tour
The stop was Zelenskyy’s first on a week-long visit to the United States. He is expected to address the United Nations. He’s also expected to present a Scranton native, President Joe Biden, a plan Thursday for ending the war that includes gaining permission to use longer-range missiles, and to meet with former President Donald Trump after that.
The media was barred from interviewing Zelenskyy or touring the plant with him, but U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright and Casey talked about what happened inside.
They said Zelenskyy asked for more help.
“Every single video conference that we've had with him … he's been requesting more and more aid to tackle the monstrous Russian army attacking his homeland,” said Cartwright, who attended the welcoming session for Zelenskyy and did not go on the plant tour.
Casey, who did take the tour, said the president got a close-up look at the production process and addressed workers at the end.
'Really, he just wanted to thank them because he knew they're the ones making it happen,' U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said. 'It's a great story about America being able to innovate and kind of turn on a dime, and be able to ramp up production to preserve freedom around the world.'
“Really, he just wanted to thank them because he knew they're the ones making it happen,” Casey said. “It's a great story about America being able to to innovate and kind of turn on a dime, and be able to ramp up production to preserve freedom around the world.”
Efforts to reach Gov. Josh Shapiro were unsuccessful.
Security in South Scranton and downtown was tight. Large trucks, police cars and barricades blocked intersections.
Ukraine has rained tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells made in Scranton to prevent the Russian army from simply overrunning the country.
“I haven't felt this honored since I don't remember when to have the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accompanied by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Oksana Markarova, come visit us and thank us and acknowledge the role that the workers in northeastern Pennsylvania have played in preserving liberty, freedom and democracy in their home country,” Cartwright, D-Moosic, said. “It was just an astonishing feeling, and all of us from northeastern Pennsylvania who were in the room were just busting our buttons with pride.”
'It was just an astonishing feeling, and all of us from northeastern Pennsylvania who were in the room were just busting our buttons with pride,' said U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright.
'It's surreal'
Outside, pride filled Alex Groysman, 43, the Scranton4Ukraine director who lives in Scranton.
“It’s just, it's surreal, like, out of all the places he's coming here to Scranton, it's just wow, like he could go anywhere,” Groysman said, who propped a large Ukrainian flag on a metal pole against his hip all afternoon.
Groysman raved about Zelenskyy.
“He’s been phenomenal,” he said. “From day one, instead of fleeing the country -- he had plenty of chances to do that -- he was going to stick with the ship. And if Ukraine’s going to go down, he was going to go with it.”
Vera Kowal Krewsun said Ukrainians “are a very vibrant people, and they're all about the common good.”
“And all they want to do is live in their country. That's all they're asking to do, peacefully, quietly and the way they want to live,” Krewsun said. “And right now they're being oppressed. Right now, they're in danger 24/7, and we want that to stop. And unfortunately, we have to have plants like this to do that.”
Olga Trushina, a Clarks Green councilwoman, said she doesn’t care if Zelenskyy didn’t stop or didn’t wave to the crowd.
'I'm here to show him that Russian disinformation is not all there is,' said Olga Trushina, a Clarks Green councilwoman. 'Sometimes when you’re online on social media, you get a feeling like a lot of people don't support Ukraine because only the most radical people are outspoken online. So when you come to physical events like this, you get to see that most people are supportive. And I wanted to show Zelenskyy that.'
“I'm here to show him that Russian disinformation is not all there is,” Trushina said. “Sometimes when you’re online on social media, you get a feeling like a lot of people don't support Ukraine because only the most radical people are outspoken online. So when you come to physical events like this, you get to see that most people are supportive. And I wanted to show Zelenskyy that.”
Laryssa Salak, 60, of Scranton, called Russian President Vladimir Putin and his soldiers “terrorists.”
“He’s a terrorist,” Salak said. “A lot of Americans, and even my friends do not understand. They said, ‘Why support Ukraine when we can put the money towards America?’”
They don’t understand the money goes to plants like the one in Scranton, she said.
“And it's important, because if the war in Ukraine does not stop, and Ukraine does not win, Putin won't stop in Ukraine,” Salak said. “He wants the world. That's what it is. And he'll come to America.”
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