🇺🇦 "We want Ukraine to be Ukraine, and that's it."

Hearing directly from Ukraine and the people who love it.

Editor’s note: In 2007, I spent a week of my life in Kyiv and Odesa, Ukraine. Spending a week somewhere does not give me the qualifications to speak with any kind of authority on a subject, no matter how passionately I feel about it. So I asked my good friend, Jake, to share with us today. You’ll read more about Jake’s relationship with Ukraine and her people in a bit, but the reason I asked him to write for the Swipe Up today is because Jake loves Ukrainians not as a project but as people. And that simple fact is crucial if we want to have a conversation about what happened in the Oval Office last week.

The weekly essay is usually paywalled, but today it is open to everyone, because I think what Jake’s done here to pull back the geopolitical curtain and remind us of not only the humanity of Ukraine, but of our own, is deeply important. As always, I’m fine with constructive pushback, but dusty, inconsiderate trolling will not be tolerated - not that we ever get that here.

And finally, any time someone writes an original piece for the Swipe Up, part of your subscription fee goes towards paying them because good work gets cash. Because Jake is a stand-up guy (who will be furious I divulged this), he’s asked me to divert his payment to one of the non-profits he listed at the end of the essay. I tell you this to further cement his status as fine human being with no agenda other than sharing about the people he loves.

Okay thank you, that is all.

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Most of us have seen the какашка (“ka-KA-shka,” the Ukrainian word for poop taught to me by a Ukrainian teenage boy) that took place in the Oval Office last Friday. What was supposed to be a routine press photo spray – some handshakes, some generic statements – quickly spiraled into an all-too-familiar spectacle. President Zelensky, a wartime leader fighting for his country’s survival, was ambushed by grandstanding politicians who seemed more interested in scoring points and TV airtime than discussing life-and-death stakes.

Editor’s note: Why are Trump’s ties so long?

Real lives, people made in the image of God, are being killed daily simply for having the luck of being born in a nation too close to Russia. But our country’s leadership now insists that they started the war, that they refuse to seek peace deals, that they are wasting our money and not being thankful. The ease with which our country’s leadership painted the victims as villains was infuriating. But more than that, it was heartbreaking.

I’ve spent some time in Ukraine since 2018, leading ESL camps for teenagers, building friendships, and witnessing the underlying resilience of a people fighting for their future, well before the invasion began. Some of my friends (let me rephrase, “heroes”) are still there; others have had to flee. Their stories aren’t just news to me, they’re personal.

Here’s Jake with some of those friends.

If you’re exhausted by the headlines or wondering why this invasion still matters, I get it. Add it to the list of other huge, incredibly important issues we must respond to with urgency. But this moment wasn’t just a bad look, and it wasn’t “just playing chess,” as one Instagram question I received suggested. It was a gut check on where we stand as a country, a fork in the road to decide what we actually value.

Despite this current political disaster, despite insurmountable odds over its 1500-year history, Ukraine hasn’t given up. And we shouldn’t give up on them either.

This Isn’t Just Politics, It’s People

When Erin so kindly offered this space to me to talk about Ukraine, I thought about 37 different directions I could go. I thought I could include: 1) An FAQ section where I answer your burning questions about Ukraine. 2) A geopolitical deepdive of the past hundred years of Ukrainian and Eastern European history. 3) A resume of what Ukraine has done for America and the incredible potential of this growing nation.

But then I realized I’m just a Southern U.S. boy now living in Texas who couldn’t even dress up as a geopolitical expert on Halloween. Thank you to those who asked questions; thank you for being interested in Ukraine. But, as I began to reach out to my Ukrainian friends in preparation for this post, I realized that I needed to focus on them, not the politics related to them.

Step away from the headlines, from talk of billions of dollars of aid, from what shirt President Zelensky chooses to wear, and you’ll hear stories of real people, of unimaginable suffering and pain.

I praise God that, to my knowledge, none of my Ukrainian friends have personally experienced deaths or serious injuries due to the invasion, and I pray sincerely that God continues to protect them. However, their emotional pain may be just as deep.

I asked a friend of mine currently living in Ukraine, “What have your emotions been like over the past few weeks?” She replied:

I’m sensitive to the news, so I tried to not read any news about the negotiations. My husband did, and then he told me a few things. I became worried that my country might be taken by both Trump and Putin: one taking the minerals, and the other taking the land and people. Where would we go then? Should I pack my bags and leave Ukraine? What about my future children: what will their world look like? These days, I just try to lean on God.

When asked, “How do you cope with the stress and negative news?” my friend in his early 20s, now living outside Ukraine, said:

I usually call my family and talk to them. Since they are living in the war everyday (they are in Kyiv at the moment), I just realize that my problems are nothing compared to theirs. The strangest thing is … when my mom or sisters say, “Oh, ten more rockets are flying towards Kyiv,” I ask them, “So, are you heading to the shelter?” They say, “No, we’re just heading to bed like normal.” They are tired of going to the shelter, so basically people are now just used to the high possibility that their house will be hit, they’ll be gone in their sleep, and there will be nothing left but ashes.

I can’t imagine the helplessness, the sleepless nights he endures as he wonders if he’ll see his family again.

Every Ukrainian hero has similar stories. A husband separated from his pregnant wife and daughter for months after the war began. Families bouncing from European city to European city, trying to start life again in a new country, with new languages, with new jobs. Spending the night in underground subway stations as bombs rain down overhead. A mother trying to answer a question from her ten-year-old child, “Mom, is it going to last all day?” on the day Russia invaded.

This is much bigger than political maneuvering, than money, than alliances, than agreements, than domestic vs. international policy. It’s about people’s lives. It’s about survival: not of a foreign government’s survival, but of very real people’s lives.

America has the power to stop all of this.

And we’ve done quite a bit so far. The most common category of question I received asked about the aid we’ve provided to Ukraine. According to reasonably sourced reports, the United States has given $143 billion to Ukraine and its European allies as of December 2024, compared to at least $194 billion given to Ukraine by European and other NATO allies.

But we cannot stop now.

Wavering in or reducing our commitment to Ukraine now does not place the United States in a place of neutrality. Reducing, ending, or even pausing our aid now is a clear choice to oppose Ukraine, to strengthen Russia, and to throw the middle finger to Ukrainian heroes everywhere.

What Can I Do?

Contact your representatives. Groan. I, like many of you, are tired of writing, calling, and spamming our elected officials over the past few months. But this pressure matters. Erin has some great techniques on her Instagram on how to contact your officials. And, vote when it’s your time to vote! No election is too small.

Support organizations helping Ukrainians. Here are a few I recommend:

• Radooga – The organization I volunteer with has been in Ukraine for over 30 years, offering outreach programs to children and teenagers from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Since the invasion in February 2022, Radooga quickly grew their online grade school from 277 children to over 12,000 students. Recognizing the war’s psychological toll and the need for children to escape the constant stress around them, they expanded their LEGO robotics after-school clubs to children across Ukraine, even in combat zones, reaching over 1,300 students.
  
  I’m biased towards these incredible people, but I’ve not been compensated to mention them here. I invite you to visit their website and their Instagram to learn more about their fearless work.
  

• Convoy of Hope – Convoy of Hope has been on the ground in Ukraine since the war began and has committed to Ukraine’s immediate humanitarian needs as well as their long-term economic recovery. Read more about their relief efforts at https://convoyofhope.org/relief-for-ukraine/.
  

• UNITED24 – Yes, you can donate directly to the Ukrainian government and designate your donation to one of five projects, including defense, humanitarian needs, education, and science. Crowdfunding has been very helpful to Ukraine so far; last week, residents of Czechia raised nearly $3 million to buy a Black Hawk helicopter for Ukraine through a similar site. Several of my Ukrainian hero friends recommended this site, and you can donate via Paypal if you don’t wish to expose your bank details.

Read factual news.

Be overly cautious of your Ukraine news sources, as propaganda and misinformation are rampant. I recommend the Kyiv Independent for honest, on-the-ground reporting from English-speaking Ukrainians, as well as well-known international press agencies like Reuters and the AP.

This Moment Matters. Don’t Look Away.

We don’t have to accept that this is normal, good, or even the best decision out of a bunch of bad decisions. We don’t have to stifle our emotions when we see oppression being celebrated. It’s not too late, Ukraine is not too far gone, and they are worth fighting for.

In closing, I asked my Ukrainian hero friends if they’d like to share anything with Americans¹:

• “I want everyone to know that it’s not just Ukraine vs. Russia. It’s good vs. evil. It’s democracy vs. imperialism. It’s the USSR vs. the US. It’s Nazis vs. the world. … In 1994, Ukraine voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons. We showed then that we are a peaceful nation and don’t want any trouble; we just wanted to develop, grow, and become a Switzerland-type country of post-USSR countries. … We don’t need someone else’s territories, we just want our territories, as they’ve been for 30 years, intact. We want Ukraine to be Ukraine, and that’s it.”

• “I’m just grateful for people who have remained committed to us all these years. To me, the President doesn’t represent America. To me, the US represents many people, families, and friends that continually show their support to Ukraine, and that’s huge.”

• “It’s a very difficult time for us now because after three years of giving hope to children [through our organization] and helping them recover from the atrocities of war, there seems to be a reset in thinking and now more stress. … So, now we are dealing with this constantly growing gap: accumulating stress but decreasing support. And this is support of all kinds: whether it’s military aid, support of children’s psychological therapy, or humanitarian aid—all of them have significantly dropped.”

• “Remember, it’s Kyiv, not Kiev.”

• “Please pray that, after all the political fights, that we don’t lose more people, that more families won’t lose their sons, husbands, and fathers.”

• “We love you! With all our heart, we thank you for everything you’ve done for us during this time and long before the war started! Thank you for your prayers, donations, shipments, and visits. And we also are thankful to your government for supporting our military. We want our boys back home. We want peace in Ukraine. Unfortunately, we have to fight for that peace. Thank you for standing with us.”

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Jake Hughes is a data analyst with backgrounds in E-commerce, media production, and education technology. Jake enjoys Formula 1 racing, Tex-Mex cuisine, using and evangelizing about Apple products, running in order to eat Tex-Mex, and volunteering as an ESL teacher weekly. Based in North Texas, he has a passion for travel and finding joy in experiencing new cultures both at home and abroad. You can connect with Jake at jakehughes.com or on Instagram.

1. Note: Quotes from Ukrainian heroes have been lightly edited for clarity.