Fearing for friends, family in Ukraine

Dan Hegelund has friends in Ukraine and he is worried about them.

The country and its people are “in a difficult place.”

“All they want is the right for self-determination and freedom,” the Post Falls man said Thursday.

But he said Ukraine is stuck in a quarrel between two superpowers, Russia and the United States, as well as NATO.

“They’re not to blame for that quarrel,” Hegelund said in a phone interview with The Press. “I feel badly for them.”

“They are the victim here,” he added.

The internationally acclaimed choir director spent time touring and leading concerts in Ukraine, Russia and much of Eastern Europe from about 2000 to 2008, returning in 2012. He directed performances in the Presidential Palace of Kyiv, Ukraine.

He was there in 2004-2005 during protests known as the Orange Revolution, which helped bring pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko into power.

Hegelund lived in Latvia, a Baltic state, for three years and his wife’s father still lives there.

Hegelund, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science, came to know the people and the culture of Ukraine. He said they like to imitate the lifestyle of Western Europe and have a fondness for American music and movies.

“It represents an ideal they long for,” he said.

Ukrainians like being able to determine their own future.

“They are very enthusiastic about their newfound liberty,” he said.

While condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “no country has the right to invade another country,” Hegelund understands the thinking behind it after spending time there.

He said the perspective of most Americans may be: Russia is completely unjustified, America is doing nothing wrong, the U.S. is all about peace and no threat to Russia.

But Russia’s perspective is different, he said. It sees a threat in NATO expanding to its borders and placing offensive weapons in countries that border its region. Russia would likely even consider it “very provocative.”

“We say pacifist, peaceful. Russia says that’s not true,” Hegelund said.

He said America likely would not find it acceptable if China, for instance, expanded a military alliance into Canada and Mexico.

“Would we be happy if Russia had attack capabilities in Cuba or Mexico?” he asked.

The U.S. would likely take action to eliminate such a threat, he added.

Hegelund, who last year opened an independent K-12 school, River Tech, in Post Falls, said most Americans may not be aware that large areas of Eastern Ukraine are home to Russians or Russian-speaking people.

“That complicates matters further,” he said.

He said the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania could be invaded by Russia, as well, but they are NATO members and under its protection.

“That might prevent Russia from going in there,” he said.

Hegelund, born and raised in Denmark, said NATO is economically and militarily stronger than Russia. But he questioned whether Europeans have “the grit or the willpower to lose thousands of lives” in a conflict with Russia while facing inflation and shortages of goods.

"I’m not sure if Western Europeans have that capacity to endure losses,” he said, adding, “which I think Russia has.”

Above all, Hegelund makes it clear he sympathizes with Ukraine, prays for peace and hopes the best for his friends there.

“It’s a sad situation,” he said.