‘We stay with you,’ Utah leaders say as Russia-Ukraine war enters 5th year amid stalled peace talks

Four years after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Utah’s top Republican state leaders held a new conference to show their continued support of Ukrainians.

“It is a somber day as we gather together four years later to honor the lives who have been lost in defending the freedom of Ukraine,” Gov. Spencer Cox said Tuesday.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., tuned in to the press conference at the Utah Capitol through a video call. Utah’s top Republican legislative leaders — Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper — also joined, along with Jonathan Freedman, honorary consul to Ukraine in Utah. 

“Four years ago, an evil superpower tried to take (freedom) away from Ukrainians,” Cox said. “Everyone thought that that invasion would be over in four days. And here we are, four years later, because people believe in liberty.” 

In 2023, a group of Utah humanitarian, business and state leaders — including Adams — traveled to Kyiv as the first state-led delegation to Ukraine’s capital city following Russia’s full-scale invasion. That delegation’s goal, the Deseret News reported at the time, was to foster deeper relationships with Ukraine during its time of need, as well as help establish humanitarian aid and business opportunities for each other. 

Since then, that relationship has only deepened and “remains strong,” Cox said. 

“We stay with you. We will help to rebuild. Know that the future is still very bright, and we want to be a part of that future,” the governor said. 

‘We want peace desperately’

The destruction and killing in Ukraine has continued for years with no end in sight. President Donald Trump’s peace talks have stalled, though on his presidential campaign trail he repeatedly said he would end the war in a single day. He later told NBC news that that promise was an “exaggeration,” and he has said that negotiations have been more difficult than expected. 

On the eve of the war’s four-year anniversary on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a plea to Trump to “stay on our side,” CNN reported. He said he hopes Trump during his State of the Union address Tuesday will back Ukraine as it continues to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If they really want to stop Putin, America’s so strong,” Zelensky told CNN. When asked if he believes Trump is putting enough pressure on Putin, Zelensky told the outlet, “No.”

Zelensky also said Ukrainians are exhausted by the war, but he said conceding to Putin’s demands isn’t an option. 

“We can’t just give him everything he wants. Because he wants to occupy us,” Zelensky said, according to CNN. “If we will give him all he wants, we will lose everything — all of us, people will have to run away or be Russian.”

Cox did not directly address the stalled peace talks during Tuesday’s news conference beyond saying, “I’m grateful to President Trump and his envoy … people who are negotiating peace.” 

“We want peace desperately,” the governor said. “We want to make sure that the kids in Ukraine, those lives that have been lost will not be lost in vain. That young people will be able to grow up in peace and freedom and security, and with a strong relationship with the United States. And again, we hope to be a part of that.” 

Flag exchange

To mark the four-year anniversary, Cox and other state leaders accepted a signed flag from Ukraine’s Kharkiv Regional Council in exchange for a Utah state flag as a showing of support, friendship and solidarity. 

Eight months ago, Nathaniel Sanders, a Salt Lake County prosecutor and vocal supporter of Ukraine, took a Utah flag to the Kharkiv front lines, where he met with region leaders and presented the Utah flag as a sign of solidarity. In return, he said they gave him the signed Kharkiv flag to bring back to Utah. 

Sanders said he has taken nine trips to Ukraine, including four to Kharkiv “to bring hope and to bring aid.” 

“Ukraine will win,” Sanders said. When they do, he said Ukrainians will be “a force in the world that Utah wants to be a part of.”

Stefanishyna thanked Utah’s leaders for their support, saying Ukrainians will “never forget everything you’ve been doing for Ukraine, for our people, throughout this horrific four years.” 

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“I cannot even tell you how important” it is for Ukrainians, including those who stay in Kharkiv, to hear support from the other side of the world in Utah “from people who have such an understanding of what is right and what is wrong, what is good versus evil,” the ambassador said. 

“I’m sure that by sending a message today to our unbreakable and unbroken Kharkiv region, you’re also sending the message to every Ukrainian who is proudly standing (for Ukraine) today,” she said. “Let me also salute every Ukrainian defender, but also every American defender who has been fighting shoulder-to-shoulder to save the life of a free and democratic and prosperous Ukraine.” 

A moment of silence for nearly 2 million lives lost

Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, gave a lengthy speech on the House floor on Thursday about Ukraine, emphasizing that he has deep personal ties to the country. His wife is Ukrainian, as are their children, and he served a mission there for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints more than 20 years ago. 

Teuscher also joined Utah’s delegation to the war-torn country in 2023, and he said his family has “many dear friends and family members still living there.” 

“I have seen firsthand both the devastation of this war and the remarkable resilience of the Ukrainian people,” Teuscher said in a statement. “Even today, civilians are being killed almost daily. Russian bombs and drones continue to strike cities and critical infrastructure, leaving millions without heat, light, and water.”

He said that this year he heard from his mother-in-law that due to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, “Ukrainians were having to go out into the streets and build bonfires to keep warm and cook their own food.” 

“This is not on the front lines of the war,” Teuscher said. “This is thousands of miles away on the western side of Ukraine where there isn’t any active fighting. But because of the impacts … everyone continues to feel it.”

On the House floor, Teuscher held a moment of silence for the nearly 2 million casualties of the war from both Ukraine and Russia over the last four years, and he called for a “prayer of peace.”

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