Tonya Graham was in war-torn country June 4-9

By Paul R. Huard for Ashland.news

Ashland Mayor Tonya Graham traveled to Ukraine last month, a visit intended to strengthen ties with sister city Sviatohirsk and remind Ukrainians that Ashland wants a long-standing relationship with the war-torn nation, Graham said.

Graham attended the International Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv, an event held June 6 that brought together civic representatives from around the world who are committed to supporting Ukraine and its reconstruction, she said during an interview Saturday. During her time there, Graham signed the formal sister city memorandum of understanding with Sviatohirsk Mayor Volodymyr Rybalkin and engaged in face-to-face meetings with him, among other activities, Graham said.

The mayor’s trip to Ukraine was from June 4 until June 9, with much of her time spent in travel. Because of the war, there are no direct flights to Ukraine. Graham’s itinerary included four different flights that took her from the United States to Poland, car travel to the Polish-Ukrainian border, and then the night train to Kyiv.

The City of Ashland paid for Graham’s travel and expenses to the summit, which cost about $3,800, the mayor said.

Graham said she consulted with the city manager and city council chairman, who had concerns regarding her safety, before making the final decision to travel to Ukraine. Both supported her decision to attend the conference, she said.

“I made a commitment earlier in the year that wherever I can see an opportunity, I will stand in solidarity with people being harmed in this current situation our world has found itself in,” Graham said in a written statement. “That was what spurred me to consider it when I received the invitation, that and knowing what it would mean to our sister city. It is also the case that the city sends a delegation to our sister city Guanajuato every year and receives a delegation from Guanajuato. Given that the mayor of Sviatohirsk isn’t coming any time soon, it seemed appropriate to go to them at a time when that type of in-person support would have real meaning.”

Developed in 2022 in cooperation with the European Union, the summit was organized by the European Union’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. The congress is an advisory body to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and part of a broad-based international effort to plan the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

Graham, who traveled to the conference alone, spent two days in Kyiv for the meetings, she said.

Traveling to a nation at war was no picnic. Graham made it clear her trip was to affirm Ashland’s commitment to Sviatohirsk and the Ukrainian people, despite the risks involved.

For example, crossing the border from Poland to Ukraine meant encountering the Ukrainian military, a necessity because of the level of security required during a time of war.

“When they came on the train to check our passports, it was a soldier who did it,” Graham said during an interview. “I think that feels different. It’s just a very physical reminder that you’re in a place where there’s an active military conflict.”

Visting a nation at war is also a life-changing experience, Graham said. During her travel to Kyiv and while staying there, she experienced two air raids – an all-too-frequent event since the war began for the residents of Kyiv, a city of 3 million people.

Her first encounter with an attack alert occurred shortly before her train was due to arrive in Kyiv. When the alert sounded, the train pulled into a station outside of the city to avoid the attack by Russian missiles and drones.

“It’s one thing to read stories about air raid sirens. It’s something entirely different to wake up in a train at a train station with air-raid sirens going,” Graham said. “They stopped our train at a train station somewhere, and we just had to wait it out. When I woke up on the train, there was nothing for me to do. Leaving the train didn’t make any more sense than staying on the train. You know, I don’t live this every day, but I knew there wasn’t anything that I could do.”

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces under the direction of President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in force, an escalation of hostilities that have been directed by Russia against Ukraine since its illegal seizure of Crimea in 2014.

The result is the largest war on the European continent since World War II, a war of aggression that has displaced at least 14 million Ukrainians, destroyed many Ukrainian cities, and provoked an international crisis.

In 2023, the Ashland City Council approved a “sister city” relationship between the two municipalities that includes plans for community-funded efforts to rebuild civilian facilities wiped out by the invading Russian Army during its 2022 occupation of Sviatohirsk.

One of the results of the Ashland council vote was the formation of Ashland-Sviatohirsk Aid Project, or ASAP, a citizen-led group that not only wants to build and maintain ties between the two cities, but also to help raise money and provide tangible help that will support the rebuilding effort.

Since then, a dump truck purchased through ASAP’s fundraising efforts helped remove war rubble in the city.

Agreements between the two cities had been discussed before at a distance using a digital distance-meeting application. Graham’s travel to Kyiv allowed face-to-face dialog between the two mayors that has more than symbolic value, she said.

Graham said that Ashland’s connections to Sviatohirsk are an important step toward preserving democracy abroad and showing the city’s commitment to global understanding.

“I felt like it was important for Ashland to show its support,” the mayor said. “Not only to Sviatohirsk, but for the country of Ukraine and the people there. The ‘people aspect’ of this is really important. The more that we have these kinds of ties, the more that we can have conversations like this, right? I think right now, in the world we’re living in, it’s very important to have these connections with other countries.”

“I think the world right now is calling on us to commit to each other,” Graham added.

Email Paul R. Huard at [email protected].