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OREM — As the war in Ukraine drags on, and as support for the country among some U.S. lawmakers seems to wane, Lindsey Bohn sometimes gets ruffled.
"They're victims of oppression. ... It breaks my heart," Bohn said. "It just feels so unfair that there are people who are just turning their cheek and don't seem to care."
Her support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people hasn't flagged, though, and as the nation's war against Russia enters its third year, as public attention to the conflict and donations seem to taper, the Orem woman is resolute. She plans to make her fourth trip to Ukraine later this month to help distribute donations and will continue her volunteer efforts dating to the start of the war to drum up support for the nation.
"I'm in it for the long haul," she said, noting the destruction wrought by Russian forces on Ukraine. "Everybody that knows me knows that. They're probably sick of hearing me by now, but I stand by it because I've seen it with my own eyes."
She also has a message for the broader public — don't forget Ukraine. "They need to hear that this war is going on," she said.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, putting the Eastern European nation's future at stake and sparking concern across the global stage. Ukraine backers from the United States and Europe jumped into action, offering humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people while military and financial aid poured in from the U.S. and European Union governments.
Now, the future of U.S. assistance to Ukraine remains the focus of sharp debate in Congress, with some conservative lawmakers leery about spending more on the war. Advocates like Bohn, though, think the United States needs to keep supporting Ukraine while Ukrainian refugees like Hanna Ruznich, now living in Riverton, similarly stress the importance of U.S. and European aid.
"I don't think we can do this without help," said Ruznich, who came to the United States eight months ago with husband Alen Ruznich under the U.S. government's Uniting for Ukraine refugee program. The U.S. government has pumped some $73 billion into the war as of Jan. 24, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute, with another $92 billion coming from European Union nations.
Alen Ruznich offered a similar take. He can understand fatigue about continuing to fund Ukraine but worries about the alternative. Ruznich, who's Bosnian, met his wife at a refugee camp in Poland, where she fled after the war started and where he was serving as a volunteer. The couple — friends of Bohn — married and came to Utah with Hanna Ruznich's two children.
"If the aid stops, Ukraine cannot stand," Alen Ruznich said.
'It was life-changing'
Bohn, a professional violinist, doesn't have a direct connection to Ukraine. She got involved in the conflict after seeing the destruction the nation faced at the hands of Russian forces. Along the way, though, her involvement — playing her violin to shell-shocked locals in some of the war-torn Ukrainian villages she's visited — has stirred something inside her.
"It was life-changing. I don't really have words to describe it adequately. I felt I was supposed to be there," Bohn said. The music, she thinks, helped thaw something in some of the Ukrainians who have become hardened to war, and she plans to bring her violin when she returns to Ukraine later this month.
She has worked with various charitable groups in the United States — including Type of Wood Charities, Hope Across Borders and Grace Evangelical Church in Ohio — which funnel aid raised to a Ukrainian organization. "We're sending in shipping containers of supplies and resources," said Bohn, who has a master's degree in nonprofit management from Brigham Young University.
Meantime, watching the chaos continue in her nation is difficult for Hanna Ruznich. "Yes of course it's hard, especially when you have family there. It's hard because you can't do nothing," she said.
She and her husband don't know if they'll return, especially with two kids, ages 15 and 5, and a baby on the way. "What kind of future can you provide them?" Alen Ruznich said.
Bohn, for her part, plans to keep up her efforts seeking donations for the Ukrainian cause. "The next year as far as I can see it is just raising funds," she said.
