New hope reaches battle-scarred Ukraine as California becomes a sister-state | Opinion

Sergei Samborski
·2 min read

“Thank you, Americans! Thank you, Californians!” These are the exact words I have heard numerous times since April 23, during my daily phone therapy sessions with friends and relatives in war-torn Ukraine. They are the same words I heard from my second cousin, Oksana Pryshlyak, who lives in California’s brand new sister state of Lviv, Ukraine.

“It is so reassuring to know that we have sisters and brothers who won’t leave us alone to be killed by the Russians,” Oksana told me.

Last week, the California Legislature approved Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 96, introduced by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, which establishes a sister-state relationship between California and Lviv, Ukraine.

A second wave of restored optimism reached Ukraine last week. After six months of pessimism, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, a new hope was born for me and my family and friends back in Ukraine: Congress finally passed House Resolution 8035, a military aid package of $60.8 billion for the Ukrainian defense against an ongoing Russian onslaught.

Lviv is the capital city of the Lviv Oblast, a province in western Ukraine. Before the bloody war that Russia started on Feb. 24, 2022, this diverse region had a population of roughly 2.5 million, and the city of Lviv had close to 800,000 people. Now, the city’s population has grown by 106,000, and the province’s population has grown by more than 700,000 war refugees from southeastern Ukraine where the devastating war still rages.

Opinion

The city of Lviv was founded in 1250 and has changed hands many times since, from the Austria-Hungarian empire to Poland, Germany, Russia and, finally, Ukraine. Lviv’s long and stored history explains its rich linguistic, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.

A cadet helps hold a huge Ukrainian flag during the National Anthem Day celebration at Rynok Square in Lviv, Ukraine, in March as the country celebrates the 159th anniversary of the first public performance of the National Anthem of Ukraine.
A cadet helps hold a huge Ukrainian flag during the National Anthem Day celebration at Rynok Square in Lviv, Ukraine, in March as the country celebrates the 159th anniversary of the first public performance of the National Anthem of Ukraine.

California and Ukraine began establishing people-to-people diplomacy even before the long-awaited collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991. Back in 1987, Modesto and Khmelnytsky signed an agreement of cooperation and friendship, which has resulted in hundreds of people participating in an exchange of teachers, students, farmers, doctors, artists, city officials and law enforcement. Now, there are many American-Ukrainian sister cities in California and the rest of the country.

Sister-state relationships, however, are relatively new. Curiously enough, Khmelnitsky took the lead again when, two years ago, in 2022, its province established a new form of cooperation and friendship with Mississippi. Americans visited Khmelnytsky only three months after the unprovoked war by Russia was started in a humanitarian mission to help people fleeing the Russian bombardment in the southeast of Ukraine.

Now, California has created another new sister-state relationship with Lviv, giving hope to Ukrainians both here and abroad.

So thank you, California!

Dr. Sergei Samborski is a lecturer at California State University Stanislaus. He was born, raised and educated in Khmelnitsky and Kyiv, Ukraine.