She wakes up in a borrowed bedroom in Northeast Washington and gets into a borrowed car every morning, racing against time: Every day the body count in Ukraine grows, and her due date gets closer.
A baby girl is supposed to arrive April 12.
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Until that day, Oleksandra “Sasha” Ustinova, a 36-year-old member of the Ukrainian parliament, is crisscrossing the halls of Congress in sneakers — which is all she can wear at 37 weeks pregnant — asking for help as the death toll mounts in the war zone where she was supposed to give birth.
“We are still negotiating for help. And I tell them that every day of negotiations is thousands of lives,” said Ustinova, 36, during a short break from lobbying over the weekend. “For every Ukrainian, we’re afraid to open Facebook every night to see news of who was killed that day.”
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She’s been at it 24 days straight now, meetings and calls and every appearance she can get. Her country needs MiGs to fight the Russians in the air. (“We have pilots ready to fly them,” she said.) They want a no-fly zone over Ukraine, to try to stop Russian planes from dropping bombs. They want economic sanctions against Russia. And they need humanitarian aid.
Members of Congress watched an urgent plea for military aid from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, when he addressed them in his wartime T-shirt, adding footage of the carnage to his presentation.
Ukrainian president directly asks Congress for military aid
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,” Zelensky said through an interpreter. “Russian troops have already fired nearly 1,000 missiles at Ukraine, countless bombs. They use drones to kill us with precision.”
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That was powerful.
But not as urgent and personal as a visit from Ustinova, with her fluent, California-tinged English — she studied at Stanford University after working for an anti-corruption organization in Ukraine — and a third-trimester glow shadowed by so much death.
“Very enlightening,” tweeted Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), who doesn’t seem to be easily convinced of much these days, as he pushes the false claims in his senate campaign that the 2020 election was “rigged” by Democrats.
As part of my work on the House #Democracy Partnership group we met today with #Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandra Ustinova. She was in #WashingtonDC when #Russia invaded #Ukraine, and has been unable to return. Very enlightening. pic.twitter.com/UALlF5RPGv
— Billy Long (@auctnr1) March 16, 2022
“Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the #Ukrainian Parliament, spoke with me about the genocide #Putin is perpetrating in her country. She happened to be in the U.S. when war broke out & now can’t go home. Her words won’t be forgotten as we work to end Russian atrocities in Ukraine,” Long also tweeted.
And then he went on News Nation two days later to argue for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. It’s one of the points Ustinova hits hard when she’s on the Hill.
In total, the current administration has given $2 billion in assistance to Ukraine, including a recent $800 million aid package that includes 800 Stinger antiaircraft systems, 2,000 Javelin missiles, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, more than 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, grenade launcher and mortar rounds, and more.
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“I tell them that they have to understand, we are fighting the second-largest army in the world,” she said. “And we are doing it on our own.”
Americans eager to help Ukraine on the ground are showing up to fight
She’s spoken to about 50 members of Congress so far. Not everyone will take a meeting with her, but she’ll keep asking.
“We as Ukrainians are very specific about what we want,” she said. “It’s not just ‘help us’. It’s not just Javelins and Stingers. We need jets. Only jets can stop the bombs.”
She’s explaining the need for economic sanctions and for a no-fly zone and the danger of Vladimir Putin’s aspirations.
“If you don’t stop him now in Ukraine,” she warns, “he will go further.”
It wasn’t her plan to be the only member of her parliament in the United States when Russia attacked.
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She booked a flight to the United States 10 days before the war started, hoping to connect with her network and warn Capitol Hill of the urgency of the situation in Ukraine before she came too close to her due date.
But Vladimir Putin made good on his threats. And Ustinova began her campaign on Capitol Hill.
She needed a place to stay, so a friend in Brookland gave her the guest room.
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She’s having a hard time walking too far, and Ubers were breaking the bank. She mentioned this in a phone call to a friend in California. Within an hour, someone in D.C. who supports the Ukrainian fight showed up at her place to loan her a car.
“Americans are amazing,” Ustinova said. “I’ve never seen so many offers of help. They tell me: ‘If you need to deliver the baby, we will help you. Whatever you need, we will help’.”
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Her husband works for a Texas company, and she was visiting him in Austin when the war began. She’s now too close to her delivery date to fly back home and into a war zone, so they are preparing to deliver their child here, even if they’re not ready.
“We don’t have a name yet,” she said. “I warned my husband that if we can’t agree on a name, I’m going to name her Javelin.”
She will keep meeting with U.S. officials until she can’t.
“Every time I have a cramp or an ache, I remind myself,” Ustinova said. “I think, ’Sasha, you are in a much better position than any woman in Ukraine right now. Keep going'.”