This Ukrainian city stood up to Russian invasion. Now, they’ve created a Sacramento lifeline
Sacramento leaders unveiled the first sister city partnership with a Ukrainian city this week, coming together Thursday with local Ukrainian community leaders at City Hall to recognize Sumy, Ukraine, as Sacramento’s 13th international relationship.
California has 60,000 Ukrainian immigrants, the second-most of any U.S. state, and about one-third of those reside in Sacramento, giving the capital city the largest population share of Ukrainian immigrants in the country, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Councilmember Caity Maple introduced the creation of a sister city relationship with Sumy to Mayor Darrell Steinberg through the request of a constituent from her district, Max McSlavkin. McSlavkin introduced both Maple and Steinberg to Brian Mayer, the executive director of Ukraine Aid International, who began the program at the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
Mayer had simultaneously cultivated Ukrainian Sister City relationships with smaller American cities on the East Coast, and McSlavkin said “it seemed like a great opportunity for Sacramento,” as both a state capital and the major city with the largest per capita Ukrainian population in the country.
“This is an important day for Sacramento because it symbolizes our commitment to the people of Ukraine,” Steinberg said in a news conference. “There could not be a more important statement here in June of 2023 than to say loudly and clearly we stand with the people of Ukraine.”
The announcement of the sister city relationship came just days after a rebellion effort against the Russian government late last week by the Wagner private military company, which ended Saturday. Vlad Skots, a chairman on the executive board for Ukrainian American House, said the new sister city partnership established an important, personal direct line of communication with the people in Ukraine as important developments unfold in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
“The Ukrainian people are very well-connected between each other,” Skots said. “In this relationship we will be able to connect more with the American people and to bring the real story from Sumy.”
The Ukrainian city that threw off Russian invasion
Sumy is the capital of the Sumy Oblast, settled in the northeastern part of Ukraine about 30 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian civilians in the city were left to arm and defend themselves from trespassing Russian soldiers, with no army troops available to protect them.
“The city of Sumy was one of the first cities to be attacked and sieged by Russian forces,” said Consul General Dmytro Kushneruk during Thursday’s news conference. “But even though it was sieged, it was never captured.”
A 2022 Reuters interview with Dmytro Zhivitskyi, the head of Sumy’s regional military, revealed that the Russian soldiers who traveled through Sumy to reach the capital, Kyiv, also planned to overtake the city. In the interview, Zhivitskyi said Russia planned to capture the city “in three to five days” because they were allegedly aware of the lack of Ukrainian forces.
But the Sumy people put up a hard fight.
An alleged phone call released by Ukrainian intelligence services March 16, 2022, between a Russian soldier to his mother showed the soldier crying after he told her about the road through Sumy, according to an article by The Guardian, where columns of Russian soldiers perished. By April 8 of that year, Ukrainian forces reclaimed the Sumy region, when Russian soldiers were forced to pull out.
The territorial defense of the Sumy people fought off Russian captivity, Kushneruk said, but the city’s close proximity to Russia continues to make it a target of Russian long-range missiles aimed for their infrastructure.
Ukrainian support in Sacramento
With 20,000 Ukrainian immigrants residing in Sacramento, the fourth largest population in a U.S. metropolitan city, several established programs within the city provide continuous support during the ongoing Russia invasion of Ukraine. More than 13,000 Ukrainian refugees have been resettled by World Relief Sacramento since 2004, including 3,000 resettled in Sacramento within the last decade.
Ukrainian American House has provided relief and resources to Ukrainian refugees both immediately and post-arrival, offering “human assistance programs, ID or driver’s license, employment, etc.”
“When the war started, I received thousands of calls that people want to help,” Skots said, referring to the Americans who wanted to offer a place for the Ukrainian refugees.
Ukrainian immigrants can also find refuge in Spring of Life Church, a Ukrainian Baptist church in Orangevale, with currently around 1,200 Ukrainian immigrants, which supports 25 missionary families working in Ukraine.
Maple said there are “many Ukrainian support aid organizations” within the Sacramento region.
“This is the important work,” Maple said. “The real work is happening every day on the ground, and that’s why it’s so important that the people of Sacramento and the people of the United States of America are aware of what’s going on.”
This story was originally published June 29, 2023 at 2:56 PM.