Local Ukrainian, Czech Immigrants Urge Western Action In Ukraine

PHOENIX, AZ — Phoenicians whose families suffered under the Soviet Union's rule in Ukraine and Czechoslovakia are urging people in the Valley to contact their representatives in support of swift action from the West to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Olga Bean, 30, of Laveen, was born in Ukraine just three weeks after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her parents were Christians who had not been allowed to practice their faith openly because of religious persecution by the Soviets.

Zuzana Kolinkova, 46, who owns yoga studios in Phoenix and Scottsdale, learned to love yoga from her grandmother when she was growing up in Czechoslovakia — now the Czech Republic. But her grandmother couldn't call her classes "yoga" because of the practice's connection to Hinduism, while the Soviets discouraged religion in all forms. Instead she called them "daily movement" or "exercise for daily living" classes.

Both women have seen the impacts of Soviet occupation themselves and believe that stronger action from the U.S., along with the rest of the west, is necessary to bring an end to the war or just to stop it from spreading. The United Nations reported Thursday that at least 549 civilians had already been killed in the conflict, and it was likely that many more deaths went unreported.

“America needs to step it up, they need to get over there and start helping them,” Bean said in an interview with Patch on Thursday. “Everyone needs to start taking the whole situation much more seriously.”

Because of the U.S.'s position as a world power, Bean believes it has an obligation to stand up for countries like Ukraine.

“The whole (Biden) administration are cowards and in times of need like this they need to show power,” she said.

Kolinkova was 12 when democracy came to the Czech Republic but she still remembers the closed borders and having to listen to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones via underground radio stations because Western music was banned. At the time people in her generation were told not to stand out, or to try too hard because being noticed by the Soviet Army was not a good thing.

"We were always told, 'Do not try to stand up or get above average or look too happy, because that would look too suspicious,'" Kolinkova said.

The simplest way for Arizonans to make a difference, in Kolinkova's opinion, is to write letters to Arizona senators and representatives, asking for more substantial action and help for Ukraine.

“We really need to take this situation seriously," she said. "We really need to not just feel sorry for the people but really stand up and do something."

Bean grew up in a suburb of Kyiv called Troieshchyna, where a power station was attacked in the first few days of the Russian invasion on Feb. 26. Artillery fire echoed across Kyiv on Friday as Russia renewed its ground offensive, according to the New York Times.

Although she left Ukraine for the Chicago area with her family when she was 8 years old, Bean remembers spending summers in her grandmother's small village of around 3,000 people, perched on top of a hill, surrounded by lush forests.

“We would spend the whole summer in the village running wild,” she said. “I had a really great childhood. I have beautiful memories.”

The would play barefoot, swim and fish in the river while cattle grazed nearby.

The fighting hasn't yet reached her extended relatives in the village or her uncle, aunt and her cousin's family in the western city of Lviv, but the factory where her cousin's husband works is soon set to shut down and her cousin has already fled to her own grandmother's remote village.

Bean described it as heartbreaking to see and hear about the millions of refugees fleeing her home country, especially when she knows how difficult it can be to leave home, even under the best of circumstances.

“You build your life in one place and it’s hard and stressful to leave,” she said.

She felt a lot of anger when Russia first invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, mostly toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also toward the Ukrainian people for living in a sort of denial that the invasion was immanent, as the rest of the world continued to warn them.

“I was angry,” Bean said. “I was angry that the Ukrainian were in denial, and angry that Putin did this for one man’s nostalgia for what the Soviet Union used to be. His selfish narcissism caused destruction and chaos for the world. He’s a selfish, evil dictator.”

She however, was not surprised that regular Ukrainian civilians were taking up arms against the Russian soldiers. Bean said if she didn't have three young children, she would join the fighting as well.

“I’m not going to be surprised if all the Babushkas, all the grandmas, come out and start strapping themselves with all kinds of guns and just going out and fighting,” she said.

Older generations heard from their parents about a man-made famine orchestrated by the Soviet government in the early 1930s, during which millions died, Bean said. They remember not having religious freedom.

“It was a miserable place and they hated living under the Soviet Union,” Bean said.

Kolinkova said she feels a connection to the people of Ukraine, which neighbored her home country of Czechoslovakia before it split into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic in 1993.

"Ukraine is really extremely close to my heart and homeland," Kolinkova said.

She said she knows firsthand what the Ukrainians are experiencing because Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Russian Army, which came in with tanks in 1968.

"People with a history and a background with the Society Union know what this is beginning of," Kolinkova said. "We know that this needs to be stopped right away. The earlier the better. It's sad that there's not stronger support from the U.S."

She added that she hopes the Russian invasion is not the start of the third World War.

Kolinkova's Metta Yoga Studio in Scottsdale hosted a Live Music Flow yoga class on Friday, with all proceeds going to fundraising efforts at the local Ukrainian Women’s League and Ukrainian Orthodox Church St. Mary’s Protectress in Phoenix, both which were suggested to her by local Ukrainian immigrants.

Kolinkova has been hosting monthly yoga classes that raise funds for various charities and felt like now was the time to highlight the needs in Ukraine. She also planned to have template letters on hand to encourage attendees to write their representatives to encourage the U.S. to take action.