A Chicagoland delegation traveled to Washington DC, organized by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Illinois Division and led by Marta Farion VP of UCCA. A team of 14 people from the Chicagoland area, focused on advocacy for Ukraine. A united community at work, they came together to advocate for pressing issues with Members of Congress, visited their offices at the House and Senate. The community is united in its assistance to Ukraine, just like the entire Ukrainian nation is united in the defense against the russian barbaric aggression to secure the borders and safety of its people.The UCCA delegation met with Congressman Quigley, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Congressman Chuy Garcia, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, and with the legislative assistants of Congressman Sean Casten, and others. They also met with the assistant to Senator Dick Durbin, and with the extraordinarily well informed and supportive Richard Sr. Onge, military legislative assistant to Senator Mitch McConnell.
The delegation attended a morning introduction of all the cdelegates who came from US Ukrainian communities, and finished the sessions with an awards ceremony led by Michael Sawkiw, director of the Ukrainian National Information Service (UNIS), which is an integral part of UCCA in Washington, and by Andriy Futey, president of UCCA.
The Congressional meetings ended with an evening event where awards were presented. The event was attended by over a hundred community delegates and many dignitaries, such as Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, Ambassador of Ukraine Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Justice Iryna Mudra, Head of the Kharkiv Oblast Tetiana Y. Lutsenko, Congresswoman Victoria Spartz of Indiana, and the legendary Julia Paevska “Taira”, the combat medic who founded the volunteer ambulance corps "Taira's Angels", who was in Mariupol and was captured and imprisoned by russian soldiers on March 16, 2022 and released three months later.
Awards were presented to several individuals: to Congressmen Steven Cohen and Joe Wilson, the cochairmen of the Helsinki Commission who introduced a resolution to remove russia from the United Nations Security Council; to Kristjan Prikk, Ambassador of Estonia to the US in appreciation of Estonia’s support of Ukraie; to the photographer Byron Smith for his extraordinary photos of the destruction in Bucha, Zaprorizhia, Chernikiv and other cities.
The two-day advocacy mission had a demanding packed schedule organized by UCCA. Our team from Chicagoland was united by the sense of purpose to support Ukraine at this time of russian aggression. UCCA was founded in 1940 to represent the interests of the Ukrainian community in the US and advocate for freedom and independence of Ukraine. It is called now more than ever to support Ukraine and its people during this time of war. Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Illinois Division