SHAWNEE, Kan. — The crisis in Ukraine continues to unfold. FOX 4 spoke with a man whose family is from that country. He explains that while those countries are across the globe, what happens there could affect us here in Kansas City.
Michael Wizniak lives in Shawnee, Kansas. His family is from Ukraine. They raised him to be well-versed in his family’s heritage and he still has extended family there currently. He keeps a close eye on the developments in that country.
“You look at what’s happened in Ukraine, it sets a precedent for further actions across the globe. It’s a very complex situation. There’s a lot of different points of view and at the end of the day, you’ve got 45 million people whose lives are involved here,” he said.
Wizniak says Ukraine has seen a lot of shift in powers across the decades.
“The situation since the fall of the Soviet Union has not been very healthy for them. You’ve got a lot of corruption and influence from Russia,” continued Wizniak.
An uncertainty Wizniak hopes can be turned around into something better.
“My hope in all of this is the encroachment from Russia, or Putin if you will rather than Russia, stops at the Crimean Peninsula and now they can focus on more integration west which creates more economic freedom and political freedom, checks and balances against corruption, and then in the end, more foreign direct investment to come in and lift the economy for the potential that I think Ukraine really has,” he said.
Wizniak also said, “I don’t believe that Ukraine is going to be able to get the Crimean Peninsula back, but I hope with that removal of this large Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, that they can lean more west now. Ukraine has a lot of potential when it comes to certain things. They are the bread basket of Europe, or they’re known as that, kind of like Kansas is that for the United States for wheat.”
FOX 4 also spoke with a family from Topeka who recently adopted four children from Ukraine. Don Jenkins and his wife, Lisa, visited that county earlier this year to finalize the adoption process and bring their children home. They say they were stuck there more than a month when the government shut down. The Jenkins family made it home earlier this month, and Don Jenkins says his new three teenage daughters and eight-year-old son are settling in well.
He said they left that country just in time.
“It looks like they’re on the brink of something that’s going to be really bad. If you look at things that are going on now, we don’t know what Russia’s next move is. We know they’re not going away, and there are threats of moving into other territories,” said Jenkins.
The four new Jenkins children start school Monday. The Jenkins said the Seaman School District has hired a translator and is letting mom tag along for classes on day one. He also said his new daughters are trying out for the soccer team. Click here for more about the Jenkins and to watch the video FOX 4 captured of their return home to the U.S.
FOX 4 also spoke with Allan Katz, a former U.S. ambassador to Portugal. He explained the turmoil in Ukraine started in February “because of demonstrations against the government when the President refused to sign an agreement with EY and went to Russians, which prompted uprising.”
“Most Ukrainians believe that Crimea belongs to them. This is a huge crisis and the final outcome is in doubt,” he said.
The International Relations Council in Kansas City is hosting an event this Thursday called “Ukraine: A Nation in Transition, An uncertain future.” Click here for information.
Click here to visit Megan Dillard’s Facebook page
