The Mayor had a nice conversation with a Ukraine native who lives in California with her husband and 2 children. She's a nurse; she has lived here for 20 years and has no relatives left in Odessa. She said she doesn't understand what's happening in Ukraine. Before she left, it appeared to her that Ukrainians, east or west, got along fine. However, she did intimate that years ago, the older population in the east had some simmering resentments against certain groups in the western half of the country.
These sentiments are a holdover from WWII, when Nazi military units were in the Ukraine and many locals were enlisted(often by force) to help fight against some elements of the local population. It is hard to overlook the fact that Ukrainians helped Facists/Nazis.
She found it difficult to understand various bits of news coming from that part of the world. Apparently, 20 years is more than enough time to become a Californian American.
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