Defacement of Ukrainian flag banner in Sebastopol troubling to supporters

It’s been a week already, but members of Sebastopol’s sister city program remain highly disturbed by defacement of a Ukrainian flag posted at the eastern entrance to town in solidarity with the besieged European nation.

Someone used a giant marker to alter a banner designed to say “We Stand With Ukraine” in two languages so the English version instead read “We Stand Against War!!” in messy black lettering.

It might have been worse.

Members of Sebastopol World Friends, which placed the banners last month at three city entryways in recognition of its sister-city relationship with the central Ukrainian city of Chyhyryn, is a peace-loving group, members say. So a denouncement of war isn’t completely off-message.

But the vinyl flags, 2-foot-by-4-foot banners attached to wood to keep them rigid, were specifically intended as a gesture of support for the people with whom many Sebastopol citizens have developed close personal relationships, said Steve Levenberg, who is on the Chyhyryn Committee for Sebastopol World Friends. He has traveled there twice and has hosted Ukrainians at his home through the sister city and other exchange programs.

“It certainly defaced what was meant to be just a simple statement of solidarity and support,” Levenberg said.

“It’s just maddening,” Sebastopol Mayor Patrick Slayter said, “that our message was one of support to Ukraine — for a democratic, peaceful society who’s been invaded — and yet someone felt the need to deface this. It just stuck in everybody’s craw that this happened.”

Sebastopol and Chyhyryn, a town of about 9,000 people about 160 miles southeast of Kyiv, have been sister cities since 1993, promoting cultural and social exchange between the two communities. Sebastopol is also sister cities with Takeo City, Japan.

Chyhyryn, located on the Tiasmyn River, a tributary of the mighty Dnieper, is about an hour’s drive from Cherkasy, a sister city to Santa Rosa. Kaniv, sister city to Sonoma, is about an hour’s drive in the other direction.

While Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor to the south galvanized much of the world in support of Ukraine, the ongoing siege has had particular poignancy for those with personal connections to the country — people like Levenberg and his wife, Patty, who had cultivated close relationships with residents of Chyhyryn and nearby communities.

The flag signs were erected early on in the war at the northern and southern entrances to town on Highway 116, and on the north side of Highway 12, just across the laguna bridge.

The city’s Department of Public Works was notified April 14 that the banner had been marked. Despite efforts to clean off the markings, it only made things worse, Public Works Superintendent Dante Del Prete said.

It has since been replaced.

Sebastopol World Friends board Chairwoman Beth Lamb noted that one board member, Patricia Deignan, flew to Poland earlier this month with bags filled with surplus medical supplies and other relief supplies.

In addition, a Chyhyryn friend, through her son in Poland, have helped arrange transport and housing across the border for a former exchange student Deignan once hosted in Sebastopol. They also helped arrange housing for the widowed husband and 8-year-old twins of a well-known translator many of them knew from Kyiv. She died last fall.

“It’s just about citizen diplomacy,” Lamb said. “Our motto is, ‘World peace, one friend at a time.’”

So the vandalism has been puzzling and hurtful to those who arranged to have it posted. And, Lamb said, social media postings from those in Ukraine who’ve seen photos of them on the road make it clear they appreciate knowing Sebastopol cares.

“In our hearts,” Levenberg said, “this was meant as a statement of support for those we’ve eaten with and traveled with and danced with, for everyone who’s been affected. To have it interpreted in whatever way it’s been misinterpreted is puzzling, and we wonder if there’s anything we can do to clarify that.

“It certainly seems like there’s some subtext that’s angry. I mean it’s an angry act to deface this like this, or it seems like it’s an angry act.”

As a Ukrainian, Olga Komar, a Kenwood attorney who was on the Sebastopol World Friends board until last January, said there are so many people around with mental health issues that it’s highly possible whoever marred the flag did not really have bad intentions.

But it remains upsetting, she said. The world’s support of Ukraine has been so welcome, even if she wishes there were more military support involved as her homeland endures such “unbelievably difficult times.”

As for the vandalism, “the message is not really clear,” she said.

“If the person was strongly against Ukraine, they didn’t say that. If they were strongly against Russia, they didn’t say that. It’s very difficult for me to understand. I just wish they wouldn’t ruin the sign.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.