A day of prayer for Sonoma County residents with Ukraine ties

Sunday marked a day of faith and contemplation for some Sonoma County residents with links to Ukraine and Russia as about 200 people gathered at St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Cathedral in Santa Rosa to pray for Ukraine and its people.

“I want there to be peace in my country,“ said a Sebastopol man and Ukraine native who attends the church regularly and gave his name as Alexander P.

He said the events unfolding in the Eastern European country have been difficult to fathom.

He talked over Skype on Saturday with his 85-year-old mother as she hid in a bunker below her home in central Ukraine. He said he could hear a military jet fly by in the background as they spoke.

His resolve to be hopeful and to pray amid the chaos there was echoed by many at the Santa Rosa Eastern Orthodox Christian church on Sunday.

As part of a prayer he offered up during the service, the Rev. Lawrence Margitich asked God to “banish discord from the lands of Russia and Ukraine. Banish with them slander and conflict, murder, drunkenness, bitter disputes and scandals. Burn out of our hearts and their hearts every impurity of conflict and evil that again we may all love one another.”

Kay Houmis, 85, a Greek national who lives in Rohnert Park, also didn’t mince words. “I’m hoping for a better world,” she said.

Houmis said she has heard stories from friends in Europe about the destruction in Ukraine. She conceded that those stories have made her question whether the state of the world “is getting better or worse.”

Eugene Pereverzyev, a Ukraine native who lives in Guerneville, has been glued to the news since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday.

The reports from his home country have been shocking, he said, and he has struggled to sleep as his mind spirals amid worries about his family members in Ukraine.

Pereverzyev has been in close contact over the past several days with his sister, who has fled the Ukranian capital of Kyiv and driven west in search of safety with her husband and their two kids.

Pereverzyev was also in touch with his parents on Sunday, who were hunkered down in the basement at Pereverzyev’s grandmother’s house outside Dnipro in case of an air attack, he said.

Hearing about the events in Ukraine from his family has been heart-wrenching, Pereverzyev said.

"It’s super stressful,“ he said. ”I never would have imagined that things like this would happen.“

Russian troops, on Sunday, were continuing to work their way toward Kyiv.

Since the conflict began, there have been numerous reports of Ukrainian casualties. But on Sunday, for the first time, Russian military officials mentioned casualties of their own.

Ukraine has claimed its forces killed 3,500 Russian troops. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov admitted on Sunday “there are dead and wounded among our comrades.” Though he did not offer any numbers, he did add that Russia’s losses were “many times” fewer than those of Ukraine’s forces.

Konashenkov also said that since the start of the attack, the Russian military has hit 1,067 Ukrainian military facilities, including 27 command posts and communication centers, 38 air defense missile system and 56 radar stations.

In other parts of Europe on Sunday, anti-war protests and demonstrations of support for Ukraine also continued.

Hundreds of people protested in Paris and in the Riviera city of Nice against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Ukrainian flags and those of other eastern European nations hoisted high.

Some Russians opposed to the war were in the Paris crowd.

It was the second day of protests directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin around France, among a string of weekend rallies across Europe.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com or @searchingformya on Twitter.