Ukrainian supporters rally in Pittsburgh after Trump's contentious meeting with Zelenskyy

Monday’s lunch hour in Downtown Pittsburgh featured a sea of blue and yellow as rallygoers gathered on Grant Street to support Ukraine in the wake of President Donald Trump’s contentious meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

Chants of “Ukrainians and Zelenskyy proud and true, the American people stand by you” ricocheted off the Grant Building’s exterior. “This is what democracy looks like.”

Dana Kellerman, part of Mondays With(OUT) McCormick, a grassroots group of Pennsylvania constituents, said the intention of the “We Stand With Ukraine Rally” was to inform Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, of their outrage with Trump’s treatment of Zelenskyy during Friday’s meeting. The Grant Building houses the senator’s Pittsburgh office.

Chanting at the rally @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/0IwAVbW2f6

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) March 3, 2025

McCormick’s Pittsburgh office did not return email or phone requests for comment Monday.

Alongside Mondays With(OUT) McCormick, the rally was hosted by other grassroots community activism organizations like Progress PA, Partners for Progress SWPA and Indivisible Pittsburgh as well.

I’m here at the Grant Building downtown — which houses @DaveMcCormickPA’s Pittsburgh office.

Mondays with(OUT) McCormick and other grassroots community orgs are hosting a “We Stand With Ukraine Rally.”

Stay tuned with me for live coverage @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/HigXX45w4C

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) March 3, 2025

“That disgraceful attack on Zelenskyy greatly escalated the situation,” Kellerman said. “We are hoping to make our senator … understand while he may be more comfortable being silent, that is not where his constituents want him to be.”

Some Trump supporters have countered that Zelenskyy was the rude participant in the meeting with the president and Vice President JD Vance.

LIVE: “We Stand With Ukraine Rally” on Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/AOXolwCNH5

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) March 3, 2025

Rallygoers requested an in-person town hall with McCormick during the next congressional recess, which is just two weeks away, with chants of “town hall now.”

Speakers at the rally included two University of Pittsburgh professors: Gregor Thum, a historian of Central and Eastern Europe, and Sergey Frolov.

Watch Sergey Frolov, a professor of physics at Pitt, speak at the “We Stand With Ukraine Rally” in Pittsburgh @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/iPAVqRUYlp

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) March 3, 2025

Frolov, a professor of physics at Pitt, was born in the city of Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine.

“My family, my friends, many of them had to flee three years ago from the brutal invasion,” he said. “Some of them are right now in the frozen trenches just miles outside the city that they lived in and called home.”

Frolov called on the crowd gathered to close their eyes and imagine a brutal enemy was stationed about as far away as the Pittsburgh International Airport and that enemy was destroying homes and livelihoods with bombs and rockets.

“That’s what people in Zaporizhzhia are experiencing now,” he said.

Many Ukrainian-Americans voted for McCormick, according to Frolov. He said he hopes the senator lives up to those constituents’ hopes — those who view Ukraine as an ally.

“And I hope Sen. McCormick stands up to the disrespect that was shown to the Ukrainian president at the White House,” he said, followed by chants of “shame” from the crowd.

Valerie Klauscher, a third-generation Ukrainian-American, whose grandparents were advocates for Ukrainian freedom and culture, criticized Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during her speech at the rally.

“The nations of Europe are standing with (Ukrainians) while we falter,” she said.

A third-generation Ukrainian American takes the mic here in Pittsburgh @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/G3VmklkwXI

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) March 3, 2025

Klauscher advocated for Ukraine’s victory in the war, saying the country must regain its lost land while Russia should return to its own borders.

“We can make our legislators’ lives miserable if they don’t stand up for Ukraine,” she said, since Trump isn’t. “We can show up with our blue and yellow flags everywhere Dave McCormick goes.”

Frolov said he lived in Russia for a few years as a teenager, where he witnessed how democracy dies.

“It dies when people don’t show up to stand up for it,” he said.

A blue (and yellow) sea

Amid the crowd of over 100 people sporting Ukraine-themed clothing, flags and accessories stood Valentina Gladkov. She was holding a blue-and-yellow striped golf umbrella.

As a Ukrainian-American, Gladkov, 59, of Acme said the Oval Office meeting, which escalated into confrontation in front of the press corps, was “so embarrassing” to watch. By the end of watching the contentious meeting, she said, she was in tears.

“I was very emotional because it’s the first time that I am ashamed” since emigrating from Ukraine to the United States in 1994, she said. “I was shocked.”

Gladkov was unsettled by the way Trump and Vance spoke to and treated Zelenskyy.

“I’m worried about this uncertainty,” she said.

Gladkov has been hosting family members, including her sister and parents, who came over from Kyiv in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“I’m responsible for them … and now, I’m so worried about them as well,” she said, which was mainly why she decided to attend Monday’s rally. “I feel that they (are) safe here, but now, I don’t know.”

Lesya Jurgovsky, an American citizen who was born and raised in Ukraine, serves as president of the nonprofit Sunshine for Tomorrow. The organization was launched when after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and supports orphans, refugees in the U.S. and overseas, and children with disabilities.

“As someone who is connected to both countries … it’s been a constant emotional struggle to process the reality of what is happening in Ukraine and it’s impact not just for people there but people like me — people like you who live in this country.”

Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy, which should have been an opportunity for respectful dialogue, was instead marred by a “complete lack of political professionalism,” Jurgovsky said, as well as disrespectful behavior.

Gladkov said she was appreciative of the large number of Pittsburghers who showed up to rally Monday.

“I hope for the best. I’m afraid to lose the hope,” she said, “but I’m still hoping it’s resolved somehow … for the peace, for all the people.”