A Ukrainian-born US congresswoman voted against aid – her hometown feels betrayed

However, after V. Spartz voted against the 61 bln. US dollar aid package for Ukraine, some people’s pride turned to anger and a sense of betrayal – feelings made more acute by her “no” vote days after an attack in Chernihiv during the morning rush hour killed 18 people, according to The Washington Post”.

“She’s not Ukrainian anymore, and I can see that,” said Natalija Khmelnycka, 50, a 15-year-old teacher at Spartz’s school who lives in the apartment building where the congresswoman grew up. – We are disappointed. We are disappointed.”

“At first we were very proud of her and thought she wanted to support us,” N. Chmelnycka added. – But now we see that politics and career are above our interests.”

Valentyna Rudenok, a 65-year-old history teacher who worked as a librarian when Spartz was in school and remembers secretly giving the teenager extra books, said she was proud to learn that her former student had been elected to Congress. However, V.Rudenok said that she was disappointed by Victoria’s vote.

“When we read about it, we just didn’t understand – it was like she became a different person,” said the interviewer. “It was a shocking feeling because this woman has come so far in life and is in a position where she can really make an impact and help our whole city or our whole school that she went to.”

In the last two years, eight graduates of the 15th school died fighting at the front. Russian strikes broke 88 windows of the building. On the first floor, the administrators set up a museum where the war evidence collected by the students is displayed: fragments of shells, part of a Russian plane, and the uniform of a dead Russian soldier.

On Capitol Hill, even among Republicans, Spartz is known to be volatile.

Elected for the first time in 2020. as a supporter of President Donald Trump, she announced last year that she would not run again, only to reverse her decision a year later, citing her “tyrannical” upbringing. Now she faces a competitive primary, with one contender running a TV ad accusing her of “prioritizing Ukraine” over securing the U.S. border.

Spartz’s “no” vote was the latest twist in her transformation from a supporter of Ukraine who toured the wreckage of the war in her hometown to a critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who supports the right-wing Republican camp.

In an email, she defended her vote, saying she was proud of her history, but “it’s really insulting and un-American to think that as an American I would be loyal not to the people who elected me to represent them and my family and children back home in Indiana, but to a foreign government at home , which I left 24 years ago.”

However, her history is inseparable from Ukraine, and she has repeatedly used it to her advantage, notes The Washington Post.

in 2022 after Russia invaded the country in February, the troops advanced rapidly towards Chernihiv, just 80 km from the Russian border. Spartz’s grandmother was among those trapped as the city was constantly shelled and bombed from the air. Many residents died. Her grandmother survived the attacks but later died at the age of 95.

V. Spartz visited in 2022. in April, weeks after Russian forces failed to capture the city and withdrew. Residents slept underground and survived without electricity, cooking on outdoor fires. Hundreds of people slept in the basement of the 15th school where she studied as a student.

Oleksandr Lomaka, acting mayor of the city, who met her at the time, appreciated this trip as a brave sign of support. V. Spartz’s change stunned him. “I’m very disappointed,” he said.

“She was here,” added O. Lomaka. He said the devastation she saw and the people she met who lost loved ones “is not on the news, not on Fox News or conservative channels.”

After the Russian invasion, House Republicans willingly handed Spartz the microphone to tell her story. She passionately defended her homeland, wore blue and yellow, criticized President Biden for not imposing more sanctions on Russia before the invasion, and vowed to fight for aid.

Returning from 2022 in April travel, she voted for bills that allocated 40 billion to Ukraine. US dollars, and stood by Mr. Biden as he signed the law that rapidly increased military support.

However, in the same summer, V. Spartz began criticizing V. Zelensky, who was considered a war hero in Congress, urging him to “stop playing politics and theater.” Spartz said Congress should set the conditions for aid and provide more oversight of the funds, a point Republicans have reinforced.

V. Spartz’s rhetoric caused indignation in Kyiv. Oleh Nikolenka, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on Facebook that he told V. Spartz to “stop trying to make additional political capital from … the grief of Ukrainians.”

This grief also affected V. Spartz’s own family.

She was born in 1978. in the town of Nosivka. She moved to Chernihiv to attend kindergarten, and in 1986 her father, an engineer, helped clean up the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, which exposed him to radiation that later caused cancer.

When in 1991 Ukraine declared independence, V. Spartz was 12 years old. Her father died that year.

His company helped pay for her education in Kyiv, and in 2000 she emigrated after meeting her husband, Jason. They settled in Indiana, the husband’s home state, and had two daughters. The woman worked in accounting and real estate before being elected to the Indiana state senate.

Oleksandr Serdiuk, 70, a close friend of Spartz’s father who has known her since childhood, met her when she visited in 2022.

O. Serdiukas said that he was disappointed with her vote. “I don’t really believe in words, I believe in actions,” he said. “The way she voted, the amendments, show me much more colorfully what her intentions are,” the man said.

O. Serdiukas said that Ukrainians, like V. Spartz, are worried about corruption, but the US aid is very important for the survival of Ukraine.

“I understand the fight against corruption,” he said as air raid sirens blared outside his office window. – But you sacrifice our country. … Any political motive or electoral motive does not justify the death of so many people.”

V. Spartz not only helped block the aid bill, but also pushed through amendments aimed at reducing the aid package and limiting other aid to Ukraine.

“President J. Biden and President V. Zelenskiy have disappointed the people of Ukraine,” V. Spartz said on Saturday before the vote in the hall of the House of Representatives. In an email to The Washington Post, Spartz said she “felt sorry for the people of Ukraine and the fighters on the front lines who elected bad leaders and paid a very high price.”

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