Russian Business Owners In Colorado Show Support For Ukraine

DENVER (CBS4)– Colorado's support for Ukraine has been visible, from rallies at the capitol to Denver's City and County Building lit up in the nation's blue and yellow colors. Last week, Gov. Jared Polis said he's committed to making sure the state doesn't empower the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Many Russians living in Colorado want to be clear that Ukraine has their support, too.

Vitaly and Alex Padalka were born in Russia and moved to Colorado 17 years ago. The brothers own the karate school Okinawa Dojo in Denver. They teach dozens of students from all over the world.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Vitaly's conversations have been tenser – personally and professionally.

"Today when one of the new clients walked in, he heard my accent and he asked me where I'm from. Honestly, for the first time in my life, I hesitated to say that I'm from Russia," said Padalka. "But of course, I told him that I'm Russian."

While proud of his heritage, Vitaly says he's been excluded from conversations with longtime friends from Russia because he doesn't agree with Putin.

"Unfortunately, there are people in Russia that have been under Putin's regime for almost 20 years, and they don't know anything different. They follow his propaganda, they follow everything he says, and they believe it," he said. "Most of the Russian-owned businesses here, have nothing to do with Russia anymore."

Despite their support for Ukraine, Vitaly's wife, an esthetician who is also a Russian business owner, recently received a cancelation from a client simply because of where she was born.

The message from her client reads: "I've canceled my upcoming appointment in support of Ukraine and in defiance of Russia will not be supporting anyone or anything that associates itself with Russia – I will be asking my fellow patriots who use your services to do the same."

The Padalka brothers leave the politics of war at the door, keeping Okinawa Dojo a safe place for students to escape the world's madness.

"Since this war happened, we try not to bring this up in our classes. We think that this is a good place for everybody to connect and understand that we're all human, and we all can live together," said Vitaly.

Also in Denver, the owners of Dazbog Coffee Company are speaking out in support of Ukraine.

Anatoly and Leo Yuffa's family left Leningrad in 1979 to escape the oppressive government and achieve the American dream.

"We fled for a reason and we're here, and we barely got here. Back then and even now, it's not so easy to get out," said Leo Yuffa. "I feel grateful every day that our parents took that risk and how brave they were in bringing us to this country."

To show their support for Ukraine, Dazbog is giving a portion of its sales this week to the International Committee of the Red Cross. This also includes $3 per bag of their Svoboda "Freedom" blend.

"We try to use the good fortune that this community has given us by supporting us, since we've been here since 1979, to give back not only to the community here but now to the people of Ukraine," said Yuffa. "Hopefully, people will continue to support the immigrants not only from Ukraine, but from Russia that are here making a life for themselves."