Ukrainian Congress Committee of America

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Ukrainian Congress Committee of America

Since 1940, the largest representation of Americans of Ukrainian descent. bureau, the Ukrainian National Information Service.

Established in 1940, UCCA unites and advocates in the name of nearly 30 fraternal, educational, religious, cultural, veterans and humanitarian organizations in the Ukrainian American community. UCCA maintains local all-volunteer chapters across the United States, with a national office in New York City, as well as a Washington, D.C. UCCA is also a founding member of the Ukrainian World Congress (u

krainianworldcongress.org), the international assembly of Ukrainian public organizations representing over 20 million people, as well as a founding member of the Central and East European Coalition (ceecoalition.us), which coordinates the efforts of national ethnic organizations representing 20 million Americans.

08/23/2026

🇺🇦 The Ukrainian flag carries a history far older than independence in 1991 — and a history of people who risked their freedom to keep it flying.

Blue and gold appeared for centuries in the heraldry of Ukrainian lands, including the golden lion on a blue field associated with medieval Galicia. Cossack banners also frequently used blue fields with golden or yellow crosses, stars, weapons and religious imagery.

The modern Ukrainian national colors began taking shape in 1848, during Europe’s “Spring of Nations.” In Lviv, blue and yellow were adopted as Ukrainian national colors, and a blue-and-yellow banner flew over the city hall.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the colors had spread across Ukrainian lands. During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921, they became inseparable from the struggle for an independent Ukrainian state. Blue and yellow flew at Ukrainian demonstrations, over the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, and in April 1918 over ships of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

Under Soviet rule, raising the Ukrainian flag became an act of resistance.

On May 1, 1966 Heorhiy Moskalenko and Viktor Kuksa replaced a Soviet red flag over the Kyiv Institute of National Economy with the blue and yellow. The KGB spent nine months searching for them. For raising Ukraine’s flag, Moskalenko and Kuksa were sentenced to three and two years in strict-regime labor camps.

In 1973, another group of Ukrainians secretly raised four blue-and-yellow flags in Chortkiv.

Still, the flag kept returning.

By 1989, blue and yellow was appearing openly again at Ukrainian demonstrations. In 1990, the flag rose over city halls across western Ukraine. On July 24, 1990, a massive crowd gathered as the blue-and-yellow flag was raised over Kyiv’s City Council — more than a year before Ukraine restored its independence. Soviet authorities continued resisting its return, and a prosecutor even opened a criminal case over the raising of the flag.

Then came August 24, 1991.

After Ukraine declared independence, Ukrainians carried the blue-and-yellow flag into the Verkhovna Rada. On September 4, it was raised over Parliament. On January 28, 1992, Ukraine formally adopted the blue-and-yellow banner as its State Flag.

The struggle surrounding these colors continues today.

In Ukrainian territories under russian occupation, the United Nations has documented the systematic suppression of Ukrainian identity. People have faced prosecution for displaying Ukrainian state symbols and even blue-and-yellow colors.

That history helps explain why Ukraine’s flag means so much more than a piece of cloth.

It has flown over revolutions and independent governments. It survived imperial suppression, Soviet prisons and occupation. Ukrainians carried it when doing so could cost them their freedom because the blue and yellow represented something fundamental: Ukraine’s right to exist and Ukrainians’ right to determine their own future.

On Ukraine’s State Flag Day, we honor everyone who carried these colors, protected them and raised them when others tried to tear them down.

🇺🇦 З Днем Державного Прапора України. Слава Україні!

08/20/2026

While russia kills Ukrainians in their beds, air defenses are being stretched to the breaking point

Overnight, russia launched another massive attack on Kyiv and communities across Ukraine. At least 16 people were killed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, with dozens wounded. A children’s hospital, school, preschool, apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged. Across Ukraine, at least 25 people were reported killed and 132 injured in the past 24 hours.

This attack came as Ukraine faces a severe shortage of the air-defense interceptors needed to stop ballistic missiles. Kyiv has been forced to defend itself with depleted Patriot stocks while russia increases the number of ballistic missiles it launches.

Ukrainian officials say the country currently has only a fraction of the interceptors it urgently needs.

The result is visible in the infernal images being shared across social media and the news, in the rubble of homes, schools and hospitals.

Every delay in resupply gives russia another opportunity to strike a Ukrainian city, destroy civilian infrastructure and kill people in their homes.

The danger is also spreading beyond Ukraine’s borders. During the same wave of attacks, russian drones entered Romanian and Moldovan territory, while Romania scrambled F-16s after an explosive-laden maritime drone approached an offshore natural gas project.

This is a sustained campaign of escalation, russia’s way of testing the West’s resolve and will to defend its land and its allies. russia is attacking Ukrainian civilians, exploiting gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses and pushing the consequences of its war deeper into Europe.
The response must address the weapons already in the air and the resources that allow the kremlin to keep producing them. The U.S. House must immediately pass strong sanctions on russia that further restrict the revenues and resources feeding the kremlin’s war machine. Every dollar denied to the kremlin makes it harder to finance the missiles, drones and weapons used to destroy Ukrainian cities.

UCCA calls on the United States and all of Ukraine’s partners to act with the urgency this moment demands. Ukraine needs Patriot interceptors, additional air-defense systems and the ammunition required to protect its cities now. Congress must also move immediately to strengthen sanctions on russia and cut the revenue streams sustaining its war.

Statements of support must be matched by the weapons that save lives and the economic pressure that limits russia’s capacity to produce more weapons of destruction. Ukraine knows what it needs. Its partners know what must be delivered.

Every day of delay gives russia another chance to turn apartment buildings into ruins and families into casualties.

Give Ukraine the means to stop these attacks. Cut the kremlin’s ability to build the next missile before it lands at your doorstep.

08/07/2026

Before Ukrainian Chicago became a community, people had to build it.

For this installment of Ukrainians Were There All Along, the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago suggested three men whose lives helped shape the city’s early Ukrainian community: Volodymyr Simenovych, Rev. Mykola Strutynsky, and Myroslav Simenovych-Simens.

Their work spanned medicine, religion, journalism, education, culture, civic organizing, diplomacy, and philanthropy. Together, their stories show how Ukrainian immigrants created institutions that allowed a community to take root in America and endure across generations.

Volodymyr Simenovych (1859–1932) was a physician, journalist, and one of the early builders of Ukrainian community life in the United States.

Born in what is now Ukraine’s Ternopil region, he studied law at Lviv University, where he was a student and friend of Ivan Franko. He arrived in the United States in 1887 and settled first in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. There, he became involved with the newspaper America, organized education for children and adults, helped establish a Ukrainian church choir, and created an amateur theater group.

After visiting Chicago during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Simenovych eventually made the city his home. He completed his medical studies, established a medical practice, and helped organize the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, which became an important institution in Chicago’s growing Ukrainian community. Later in life, he edited the Chicago newspaper Ukrayina and published an early statistical study of the city’s Ukrainian population.

Rev. Mykola Strutynsky (1870–1943) helped build the religious, educational, cultural, and civic infrastructure that Ukrainian immigrants needed.

Born in Kalush, he came to the United States in 1902 and served Ukrainian communities across North America. In Chicago, he became the first pastor of St. Nicholas Church. His work extended far beyond the church. Strutynsky helped establish Ridna Shkola, an early Ukrainian school that began with one teacher and ten students. He organized the Mykola Lysenko Choir, described by the Museum as Chicago’s first Ukrainian choir, established the Dnipro Savings Association, and other Ukrainian Catholic and civic organizations.

He also helped organize Chicago’s Sich movement, participated in Ukrainian relief efforts, worked to advance Ukrainian education in America, and devoted substantial energy to journalism and publishing.

A generation later, Myroslav Simenovych-Simens (1885–1967) emerged as one of Ukrainian Chicago’s leading civic and political figures.

Born in Chernivtsi, he arrived in the United States in 1907 and studied medicine at Loyola University. He later served as a military physician and attained the rank of major. His life also remained closely connected to Ukraine: in 1920, he participated in the diplomatic mission of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic to London.

From the late 1920s through the 1940s, he led the Hetman “Sich” organization in the United States and Canada. In 1933, he served as president of the Exhibition Committee responsible for the Ukrainian Pavilion at Chicago’s Century of Progress International Exposition.

Then, in 1952, he became the first president and a principal benefactor of the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago. For many years, recognition of his leadership and support.

A church. A school. A choir. A newspaper. A savings association. Civic organizations. Cultural institutions. And eventually, a museum dedicated to preserving the history that these immigrants themselves were helping to create.

That is how Ukrainian Chicago was built.

And it is part of a much larger story. Across the United States, generations of Ukrainian immigrants built institutions, served their neighbors, preserved their heritage, and became part of the civic and cultural fabric of America.

Ukrainians Were There All Along. 🇺🇦🇺🇸

We are especially grateful to the Ukrainian National Museum in Chicago for suggesting Volodymyr Simenovych, Mykola Strutynsky, and Myroslav Simenovych-Simens for this campaign, and for providing the majority of the biographical research, archival information, and historical photographs used to tell their stories.

Know a Ukrainian-American story America should know? Submit it to [email protected].

08/06/2026

Across Ukraine, filling a tank has become another calculation of risk.

In recent months, russia has launched a systematic campaign of drone attacks against Ukrainian gas stations—civilian businesses used every day by workers, families, evacuees, delivery drivers, emergency personnel, and travelers.

Nearly 250 Ukrainian gas stations have been attacked in recent months. Conflict monitors recorded at least 246 strikes since the beginning of April, including 194 between the beginning of June and July 27.

The attacks have spread across frontline and interior regions, including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kyiv, Poltava, and Ternopil.

In Zaporizhzhia alone, local officials reported 54 attacks on gas stations in just 24 days, killing four people and injuring 29.

These stations are civilian infrastructure.

They are also an essential part of life in wartime Ukraine.

With commercial air travel suspended, Ukrainians rely heavily on the country’s roads. Gas stations serve as way stations where evacuees, truck drivers, service members, volunteers, families, and emergency workers can stop, regroup, and continue their journeys.

During blackouts and evacuations, stations with generators have provided electricity, warmth, hot tea, food, bathrooms, and places where parents could prepare milk for their babies.

Today, many of these familiar places bear shrapnel scars, scorch marks, sandbags, and boarded windows. Others have been reduced to burned-out shells.
Drivers have changed their routines. Some avoid bathroom or food stops, carry additional fuel in their cars, start the pump and move away while their tanks fill, or leave as quickly as possible. Workers at some stations now remain at a distance from the pumps when they can.

Gas station operators and local authorities are adapting.

Stations have installed anti-drone netting and reinforced pumps and entrances with wood and sandbags. Some close overnight, turn off exterior lights, and suspend fueling during air-raid alerts. In Trostianets, mobile fueling points were established after strikes destroyed every gas station in the area.

Despite the damage, russia has failed to create the fuel crisis promoted by its propaganda. The attacks have primarily inflicted death, injury, fear, and disruption on civilians.

This campaign reflects a familiar russian strategy: target the ordinary places people depend on and make daily life itself feel dangerous.

Ukraine continues to adapt, work, travel, evacuate civilians, and keep essential supplies moving. Its people should not have to risk a drone strike while filling a car or buying a cup of coffee.

Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defense, sustained military support, and accountability for russia’s deliberate attacks on civilian life and infrastructure.

Stand with Ukraine. Help protect its people.

07/31/2026

Millions of Americans knew her voice. Most never knew her name.

Meet Kvitka Cisyk, the Ukrainian-American singer who became part of America’s soundtrack while creating some of the most treasured recordings of Ukrainian music.

Born Kvitoslava-Orysia Cisyk in New York in 1953, Kvitka was raised by Ukrainian immigrant parents in a home where music, language, and heritage shaped everyday life. Her father, Wolodymyr Cisyk, was a concert violinist and teacher who began training her on the violin when she was five years old.

Kvitka studied at New York’s High School of Music & Art and later attended the Mannes College of Music, where she pursued classical voice training. After the death of her father left the family facing financial hardship, she began building a professional career as a session and commercial singer.

Working under the name Kasey Cisyk, she became one of the most recognizable voices Americans did not recognize by name.

Her singing appeared across television, radio, film, and advertising. She recorded for major brands, airlines, retailers, and media networks. She worked as a studio vocalist alongside prominent figures in American popular music and became especially associated with Ford’s long-running slogan:

“Have you driven a Ford lately?”

Her voice was also heard performing the title song in the 1977 film You Light Up My Life.

Across the United States, millions of people heard Kasey Cisyk. Within Ukrainian communities, she was Kvitka.

Although her commercial career brought her success, some of her most meaningful work came from her desire to record Ukrainian songs with the same level of artistry, musicianship, and production quality found in major American studios.

In 1980, she released Kvitka: Songs of Ukraine. Nine years later came Kvitka: Two Colors, dedicated to “the spirit of the Ukrainian soul, whose wings can never be broken.”

Both albums were family projects. Her sister Maria, a concert pianist, performed on the recordings. Her mother, Iwanna, carefully guided Kvitka’s Ukrainian pronunciation. Kvitka invested her own resources into gathering accomplished musicians and creating arrangements worthy of the songs she had inherited.
The result was a body of music that carried Ukrainian language, memory, and emotion across generations and across an ocean.

Kvitka Cisyk built a distinctly American career while remaining deeply rooted in her Ukrainian identity. Her life showed how immigrant heritage could enrich American culture while preserving a powerful connection to the homeland.

She died from breast cancer in 1998 at only 44 years old. Her voice continues to be heard throughout Ukraine and the diaspora. Streets, festivals, documentaries, and commemorations now carry her name, while her recordings remain a beloved link between Ukraine and its people around the world.

Kvitka Cisyk was part of America’s soundtrack.

Ukrainians Were There All Along.

What other Ukrainian-American stories should America know?
Submit your story to [email protected]

07/28/2026

Some aid saves lives quietly.

A repaired vehicle.�A set of tires.�A water canister.�An FPV drone scanner.�A medical training course.�Winter gear secured before the cold returns.

This is what your support helps make possible.

Over the past several weeks, UCCA has continued delivering critical humanitarian and non-lethal assistance to Ukraine’s defenders and communities under attack.

Through the dedication of our Kyiv team and partners on the ground, UCCA has helped:

🚙 Restore and maintain vehicles used by frontline defenders, including tires, repairs, and replacement parts

💧 Deliver essential supplies, including canisters carrying 1,000 liters of water

📡 Provide Shcheznyk FPV drone scanners to a frontline reconnaissance unit working to protect personnel and logistics routes

💊 Deliver 5,000 water purification tablets to Ukrainian forces serving in difficult frontline conditions

✈️ Provide Garmin watches and GPS systems to Ukraine’s military pilots

🏥 Support expanded Tactical Combat Casualty Care training through our partner Anomaly, including realistic simulations with fire, smoke, pressure, and battlefield conditions

🧥 Secure another major donation of winter gear from Fieldsheer, helping ensure Ukraine’s defenders are better prepared before harsh winter weather returns

We are also honored to have received a signed flag from the 33rd Separate Assault Regiment in recognition of UCCA’s ongoing humanitarian and non-lethal support.

And the work continues.

UCCA is preparing to partner once again with Ukraine Focus for its 19th and final humanitarian convoy of 2026, delivering ambulances and medical evacuation vehicles to Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces and the Hospitaliers Medical Battalion.
Mission support opportunities:

• $10,000 sponsors one fully equipped ambulance�• $5,000 co-sponsors an ambulance�• $2,500 supports essential medical equipment and logistics�• Any amount helps place another lifesaving vehicle into service

To volunteer as a driver or learn more, contact [email protected].

Every donation. Every delivery. Every act of support matters.

Help UCCA keep lifesaving aid moving:
ucca.org/donate

Thank you for standing with UCCA and Ukraine.

07/22/2026

She turned Ukrainian memory into color.

Who should America know about? A UCCA community member, Diana Pletts, answered: The Ukrainian-American artist who turned folk memory, family tradition, and immigrant life into art that traveled across generations.

Meet Yaroslava Surmach Mills, a Ukrainian-American artist, illustrator, teacher, and creator whose work helped carry Ukrainian folk traditions across generations in America.

Born in New York’s East Village in 1925 to Ukrainian immigrant parents, Yaroslava grew up in the heart of the city’s Ukrainian community. Her father, Myron Surmach, immigrated to the United States in 1910. Her parents later opened Surma Book & Music Company on East 7th Street, a landmark of Ukrainian life in New York and, for decades, a hub for books, music, greeting cards, folk art, and cultural memory.

It was at Surma that Yaroslava’s drawings first reached the public as greeting cards.

Her first artistic teacher was her mother, Anastasia, who taught her embroidery, pysanky, pattern, color, and the visual language of Ukrainian folk life. After studying at The Cooper Union, Yaroslava built a career that moved between fine art, illustration, teaching, sacred art, and folk tradition.

In 1956, during a rare period of limited Soviet access, Yaroslava traveled to Ukraine. She visited folk museums, traveled through the countryside, and encountered the reverse glass paintings that would help shape her signature style.

Her art became known for its vibrant scenes of Ukrainian life: families, villagers, holidays, music, faith, movement, color, and community.

Over a career that spanned decades, Yaroslava illustrated children’s books, created icons and pysanky, designed stained glass, taught calligraphy and folk art, and helped generations encounter Ukrainian culture as something living, joyful, and present.

In 1968, her painting “Carolers” was published as a UNICEF holiday card. She also designed stained-glass windows for St. Demetrius the Great Martyr Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto, a major sacred art project that took decades to complete.

Her work connected Ukrainian-American communities through homes, churches, museums, bookstores, classrooms, greeting cards, and children’s books.

Yaroslava Surmach Mills reminds us that Ukrainian-American history is not only found in politics or public institutions. It also lives in family traditions, neighborhood shops, folk art, sacred spaces, and the hands of artists who preserve beauty across generations.

That is why her story belongs in UCCA’s America250 campaign:

Ukrainians Were There All Along.

What other Ukrainian-American stories should America know?

Submit your story to [email protected]

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