Olichka (Oli) Nevinska the co-founder of Cactus and Tryzub (pronounced, tree-zoob) meaning freedom—sat down with Northeast Valley News on Saturday literally one hour after the U.S. Congress passed a last minute spending bill to keep the government open—but at the demand of hardline MAGA Republicans, the bill excluded funding to Ukraine. 

Cactus and Tryzub, the Arizona Ukraine Connect, was established shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

Nevinska has watched the U.S. as well as “so many wonderful Arizonans” unite around her sovereign country in the beginning of the Russian attack only to witness the emergence of a hardline GOP propaganda machine that she says seems to be working overtime to stop aid to Ukraine. 

Nevinska has addressed lawmakers in both D.C. and at the Arizona Capitol.

“It all comes down to politics. This is the number one obstacle. Who are the decision makers? They are the Congress. And usually their decisions are the ones that influence other countries. It’s important for everyone to see that the U.S. is continuing to show the leadership by  supporting Ukraine,” Nevinska said. 

“We cannot sit down at the table and negotiate a deal with Russia because that’s going to be the same frozen conflict that happened in 2014 when they invaded Ukraine the first time.”

The frozen conflict, according to Nevinska, allowed Russia time to prepare for the full scale invasion that she says her country is now experiencing.

America should not make the same mistake. 

Hardline MAGA Republicans, fueled by Donald Trump, have ramped up the rhetoric against supporting Ukraine in large part because of their own ideology—namely, an allegiance to Trump who has repeatedly been quoted lauding Putin. 

There’s also a reported, yet contradictory connection to so-called “Christian values” that the GOP hardline right has managed to align with Putin.  

Nevinska says there is “absolutely no negotiating” with Putin even though many GOP officials insist that negotiation is the path to a solution and push for defunding aid to Ukraine. 

Nevinska wants Arizonans to know that pulling aid from Ukraine means that democracy everywhere is threatened.

It’s not inconceivable that the more Republicans talk about negotiations and either stall or, as witnessed on Saturday, remove aid from Ukraine, the more likely Putin will have the incentive to continue the attacks on Ukraine and beyond. 

“We (America) and the rest of the world will realize his threat very quickly if we allow Putin to defeat Ukraine,”Nevinska said. 

The U.S. has given roughly $76.8 billion, including more than $46 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

 In comparison though, the money for Ukraine is 0.65% of the total federal spending in the past two years. 

The U.S. and other Western aid has gained a lot from their investment in Ukraine as Russia has experienced great loss. Reportedly, more than 120,000 Russian soldiers have been lost and more than 170,00 have been injured. Russia’s military arsenal has also been devastated losing thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, personnel carriers, aircraft and helicopters.  

Russia’s armed forces have been reduced and have therefore diminished the threat to front line NATO states and, in the big picture, decreased the risk to our own security. 

The truth is, while the U.S. has been a strong leader of support of aid to Ukraine, it is not responsible for the greatest amount of aid. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy reportedly, “Europe has clearly overtaken the United States in promised aid to Ukraine.”

Still, the world and its leaders, for the most part, seek endorsement from the U.S. and its historical defense of democracy. If the U.S. falters by defunding Ukraine, other countries will likely follow. 

Nevinska recalled the early days of Putin’s invasion on Ukraine. Her own family, her mother, father and sister remain in Ukraine and Nevinska is in constant fear for their safety. 

“The war in Ukraine has united its citizens so much that—yes, we will fight,” Nevinska said.

“My father refuses to leave Ukraine. He won’t come here and stay in the U.S. with me—he won’t leave Ukraine and has told me that if the Russians come, we will kick their asses,” this, she says, is the kind of resolve that makes her country so strong.

But resolve alone cannot win a war against Putin. 

Nevinska issued a stark warning and told Northeast Valley News that Americans should not wait for a war to unite them. 

They should see the devastation in Ukraine now and act on it by showing the rest of the world as well as China and North Korea that the West will not back down from tyrants.

America is the country Nevinska has come to love and Arizona is where she wants to live. 

After arriving in the U.S. and settling in Arizona twelve years ago, Nevinska has enjoyed the beauty of the desert and the people of the Grand Canyon state and will continue, at least for now, to call Phoenix her home.  

She is employed full-time as a forensic financial analyst but works far beyond a 40-hour week as the co-founder of Cactus and Tryzub Ukraine/Arizona organization she is devoted to. 

Nevinska organizes fundraising campaigns, information rallies, she travels to speak to elected officials and engages Arizonans from all walks of life. This is her mission—to advocate for Ukraine and to spread accurate information about the invasion by Russia. Nevinska eagerly engages questions from people who are unclear or misled by rhetoric from Russia. 

If we just “wait and see what happens” or give Ukraine only well wishes or pull funding from them then, “Russia will be making deals with China, North Korea, Brazil and Iran, and this is a dangerous unity and threat to the entire world.” 

Nevinska wants politicians to look—really look, at the bigger picture. 

She told Northeast Valley News that children from every corner of the world will be sent to fight against Russia if we don’t, as a country, unite behind Ukraine now. 

“I am an American too. This war has impacted me because I’m from Ukraine, but if Russia is not stopped it will impact every single person in the United States,” Nevinska said. 

She recalled images of World War II and what happened to Berlin—”That’s when people realized that what they did was wrong,” Nevinska said.

“Until Russians push back against Putin and realize that what their leader is doing is wrong, then the killing of women and children and other atrocities that I can’t even speak of, will continue to happen.”