In Scranton, The War In Ukraine Breathes New Life Into A 116-Year-Old Arms Factory

SCRANTON, Pa. ― Father Myron Myronyuk, the pastor of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church, remembers the generosity of his neighbors when Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine began.

Myronyuk, a native of Western Ukraine who moved to the United States in 2008, said he spent part of the first day of the invasion lighting the altar’s 60 candles, crying and praying. As with other Ukrainian churches, his congregation sprang into action and collected donations of aid to send, filling up three shipping containers’ worth.

“From the first week, we were trying to give support as much as we can, and people were so, so great. [They] brought food, clothes, medical,” he said, his voice maintaining a meaty eastern European accent.

“I experienced how generous American people are, how compassionate they are, how they feel sorry” [for what happened], he said. “And not just saying the words, they say, ‘How can I help?’”

The war in Ukraine has meant more than sympathy in Scranton, and in surrounding Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As the home of Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, it’s also meant jobs assembling the 80-lb. forged steel casings are crucial to the Ukrainian war effort.

In the presidential race, the war in Ukraine has been the focus of cataclysmic rhetoric, with former President Donald Trump insisting it risks the start of World War III, and Vice President Kamala Harris joining President Joe Biden, Scranton’s best known native son outside of the fictional characters on ‘The Office,’ in portraying it as a crucial front line in battling 21st-century authoritarianism.

But even in a place with ethnic and economic ties to the war, the war in Ukraine appears to remain a mostly back burner political issue locally.