According to the International Institute in Erie, Ukranian families have been settling in the Erie region since 1997.

That means plenty of people here are watching the events unfolding in Ukraine with concerns about family members who still live there.

One of them is Lena Surzhko, Ph.D. Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science.

She along with the world looked on Monday as fears of a Russian invasion into Ukraine, and speculation about exactly how the Putin government would make it happen went from threat to reality.  President Putin recognized two rebel eastern Ukraine regions, Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, and then authorized Russian troops to roll in and protect them.

The professor said she was surprised at how quickly those actions tumbled.  Surzhko-Harned said in spite of celebrations seen in the streets in those regions, the West shouldn't assume those full regions want to be under Russian control.  

So far she is pleased with President Biden's response and the U.S. sanctions, and is waiting to see how those will impact President Putin's decisions.  But she is concerned about how far Russian troops will go and about the Russian president's larger end game.  "His speech basically denied Ukrainian existence once again and this is not new that we haven't heard from him before. We've known his sentiments all along but what is dangerous in that speech furthermore is that he denies existence of other former Soviet Republics --so it almost seemed that he suggested taking Russia back to Imperial days of 100 years ago," Professor Surzhko-Harned said.

Lena's mother is already in the U.S. helping her care for a young child, but she has other relatives back in Ukraine and says they are resolute. "They are surrounded by other resolute Ukrainians they know that Ukraine is here in the right defending its own motherland....and God's on their side."