In Morgantown, Ukrainians get valuable tools to help veterans back home—with a side helping of Mountain State hospitality.
Photos Courtesy of Henry Oliver, WVU Global Affairs
How does a country honor and serve its veterans—what are the actual logistics of veterans services? The young but war-torn nation of Ukraine needs to know, and, in March, six Ukrainian military veterans visited Morgantown to pick local brains on the topic and to engage in a cultural exchange.
The delegation visited military and veterans services personnel and met with the Morgantown Ukraine community and the Ukrainian Mountaineers Association of WVU students. Three of the six sat down to talk with Morgantown magazine about their experience here.
“This trip was not only just a trip to see the city and to go sightseeing, but to build up the communication, the experience, the potential exchange of ideas for the future of our country,” said Iryna Borysivna Kostenko, one of the delegates, through an interpreter. “Residents of Morgantown are very open and welcoming to us.”
Ukraine has experienced only one war since it gained independence in 1991—the current war, which has been ongoing since 2014—and the nation is preparing for the coming need for veteran support. “America obviously has more veterans that came back from different wars and has more experience with the veterans than we do,” Kostenko said. And West Virginia has one of the country’s highest per capita veteran populations, according to World Population Review.
At WVU Law College’s Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic, just one of their site visits, the Ukrainian delegation learned what taking care of and supporting veterans looks like from a U.S. perspective. “We are very happy that we were able to receive the knowledge and experience that you guys have here to be able to implement it when we go back,” said delegate Mariia Yuriivna Zviahintseva.
Military participation in Ukraine is open to everyone over the age of 18 and under 60, the delegates explained. Physical and psychological screening may determine eligibility for service. Those who are deemed ineligible for combat can serve in operations or instructor positions in training facilities. “To sum up, what you need is motivation, professional preparedness, and desire to kind of grow and develop your military career,” said Zviahintseva.
The members of the delegation learned about veteran care here from their various professional perspectives—Zviahintseva is a lawyer, while Kostenko has a medical degree. The third member who spoke with us, Iryna Dmytrivna Rybakova, has a background in media and communications.
“Every day when we were starting our meetings, we were talking on the topics that were similar to what interests us, to what we actually have started either thinking or started implementing back in Ukraine,” Kostenko said. “And what we realized is that what’s similar is the values for veterans between our nations.”
WVU hosted the visit in service of its R1 status and its land grant mission of giving back, says WVU Director of Global Advancement Henry Oliver. “This has provided us with an opportunity to showcase on a global scale what West Virginia is doing right and what WVU does right.” Programs such as the Ukrainian delegation are opportunities to share WVU’s humanitarian, legal, and medical resources with the world, he adds.
Kostenko, Rybakova, and Zviahintseva all expressed gratitude for their time and experience in West Virginia. Staying with local host families allowed them to truly immerse themselves. They tried the West Virginian delicacy, the pepperoni roll, and shared that their snack was good—nothing extraordinary, but a traditional necessity when visiting the Mountain State.
“During our stay here, we’ve been meeting with Americans and we’ve been sharing our personal stories, our personal experience about Ukraine and about the current state of affairs,” Kostenko said. “Ukraine will continue to fight, but we do feel support of the American people, and we thank the American people and American government for the support that you are providing.”
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