On his first day at the World Athletics Championships, Yevhen Pronin, the acting president of Ukraine’s track and field federation, said he experienced something remarkable: a group of Americans trying to buy him lunch.
As U.S. relations with Moscow fray to their worst point in decades over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian athletes and officials say they feel at home in Eugene, Oregon, where they can spot their flag around the quiet college town.
"Six or five persons come to us and ask ‘Can we pay for your lunch?’ I don’t understand what’s happened," Pronin told reporters on Wednesday. "Somebody tells me, it’s support, it’s normal."
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