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Ukrainian-born City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov on Tuesday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “terrorist” who has “lost his mind,” as fighting escalated during the sixth day of the Kremlin’s invasion of the free nation.
“What a dark, dark moment in our history. The people in Ukraine are suffering at the hands of a terrorist. And growing up in the region, I know that President Putin has always been a tyrant, but now he has officially lost his mind,” an emotional Vernikov (R-Southern Brooklyn) said in an address at the New York GOP convention in Long Island’s Garden City.
Vernikov, one of four Republicans newly elected to the City Council last year, lamented that Putin wants to “destroy democracy,” and declared that everyday Russians and Ukrainians do not back the invasion.
“I think that all this is about is more power. I think he wants to destroy democracy. And I think he wants to bring the Soviet Union back. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people do not want this war,” she told the crowd gathered at the second day of the convention.
“They have tasted freedom and independence, and they want their country to be more like America, and less like the Soviet Union. And so I’m here to do my part to make sure that America stays more like America.”
Get the latest updates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the Post’s live coverage.
A self-described “Ukrainian-born American Jew,” Vernikov, 37, was raised in Chernovitz when it was under Soviet rule and immigrated to New York in 1996 at 12 years old. During her speech, she recalled the struggles of her upbringing under communism and reasons for immigrating to America.
“Even though I was a little girl, I remember standing in lines, long lines, hours of lines with my grandfather just to get a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk for my family,” she told the crowd. “I remember the empty shelves in the stores and I remember anti-Semitism.”
“And so when I was 12 years old, my family fled to the United States,” she added. “We came here for capitalism, for a free-market economy, for religious freedom, and for opportunity. And so I grew up with this notion that, in America, if you work hard, you can achieve anything you want to achieve, it’s something we call the American dream.”
Vernikov said she was motivated to enter politics after witnessing what she felt was a series of disturbing trends in the Big Apple.
“My American dream was to become an attorney, so I went to law school, I had my own law practice for eight years — until I saw this city and the country that I love burn down to the ground, until I saw looting and rioting, until I watched our criminal justice system handcuff our police officers, instead of handcuffing the criminals … until I watched anti-Semitism and all forms of hate rear its ugly head,” the first-year lawmaker said.
“And so I put my law practice aside and did one of the craziest things I’ve ever done in my life, which is run for office.”
She said her success in the 2021 City Council contest for a Brooklyn seat formerly held by a Democrat should be encouraging to Republicans in the deep blue Empire State.
“Almost nobody thought I could win but I felt the room and I knew — I knew the people were angry with the Democratic Party, I know that people were angry with the policies that led to crime, dirty streets and a shift toward socialism,” she said.
“My victory should send a very loud and clear message to Republicans all over this state: As President Barack Obama used to say: Yes we can. We can and we will win.”
Her comments come after New York GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy on Monday urged members of his party to draw inspiration from Ukrainians’ steadfast resistance to Russian aggression.
“You know what — we need to start acting like the Ukrainians — everyday citizens who are risking their lives for their freedom,” Langworthy told the crowd during the first day of the convention. “We need the spirit of the soldiers on Snake Island, who stood back in the face of a Russian warship and refused to surrender their country.”
Vernikov’s address also came after earlier Tuesday, on the sixth day Ukraine was under siege from invading forces, a missile slammed into a major administration building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city — a move that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky labeled a “war crime.”
A second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine is slated for Wednesday, after the two sides failed to reach resolution on Monday during negotiations, according to local news outlets in both countries.
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