Bay Area nonprofits and tech companies show support for Ukraine
Bay Area tech companies, local nonprofits make efforts to support Ukrainians overseas
A Ukrainian art display in San Francisco Tuesday night made a statement of American solidarity for Ukrainians, Ukraine's Consul General based in San Francisco called it a peaceful method to show support. KTVU's Emma Goss reports.
SAN FRANCISCO - The Bay Area's tech companies and nonprofits are demonstrating support for Ukrainian citizens as Russian troops encroached further into Eastern Ukraine Tuesday.
At San Francisco's Palace of Fine Art, the nonprofit, Justice Murals, created a digital art display, projecting iconic works from Ukrainian artists dating from 1920 to the 1990's. The art projections came from Ukraine's largest art center, Mystestkyi Arsenal.
"Art is such a great medium, and a way to talk about these social issues," Carolyn Considine, who runs Justice Murals, said.
Justice Murals has been sharing these masterpieces at night in different Bay Area cities, hoping the art spurs conversations and inspires Americans to learn more about the events unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.
"We are very worried," Dmytro Kushneruk, Consul General of Ukraine in San Francisco said while attending the Ukrainian art display. This week he's been responding to local Ukrainian Americans who have asked him for help contacting their local and state representatives.
"Mostly they are the younger generation people who work at big tech companies," Kushneruk said.
San Francisco-based company, JustAnswer, an online platform connecting experts with people for professional advice, has offices worldwide, and roughly 260 employees who work in Ukraine.
Andy Kurtzig, JustAnswer's CEO, held a virtual all-staff meeting Tuesday with his Ukrainian office.
"We've offered to keep them safe," he said. The company is offering to support relocation of 19 employees and their family members from Kyiv to neighboring nations to the west and paid time off.
"One of our employees has already said yes, we are moving them already," Kurtzig said, though many are thinking of staying.
Kushneruk said it's natural for Ukrainians to want to remain and defend their homeland.
"People are very courageous," Kushneruk said. "Most of them don't want to leave the country. And even the younger generation people cannot make their parents in Ukraine leave or even come here," he said.
Kurtzig is preparing compensation plans for workers if they join the Ukrainian military. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy mobilized reservists to active duty, restarting military exercises Tuesday. He's also finding a new method to get paychecks out to his Ukrainian workforce. He said the Ukrainian bank the company usually relies on was hit by a Russian cyberattack.