Scottsdale judge travels to Washington D.C. seeking peace, help for Ukraine

Judge Orest Jejna, a first generation Ukrainian American judge with the Scottsdale Municipal Court for 22 years, recently traveled to Washington D.C. as part of a five-member Arizona delegation to attend the three-day Ukraine Action Summit.

The summit was an event on Capitol Hill focused on communicating with members of Congress about how to bring peace to Ukraine as soon as possible and then to help rebuild Ukraine, according to a press release.

In addition to representing the Arizona Ukrainian American community, Judge Jejna represented the Ukrainian American Bar Association, a national organization of Ukrainian American attorneys. Jejna is a past president of the UABA and currently sits on its board. The timing of the meeting was critical with there being over 10 million displaced Ukrainians and winter quickly approaching, the press release stated.

The Arizona delegation completed meetings with nine of 11 Arizona members of Congress. Attending a couple of those meetings were combat medics flown in from the front line to brief members of Congress on the dire circumstances at the front lines.

“Hearing the stories of the brave Ukrainian soldiers only underscored the urgency of our delegation’s mission in Washington, D.C., to seek the help Ukraine needs to achieve peace,” said Jejna.

Another emotionally moving part of the summit, was a slide from a playground in Irpin, Ukraine on display showing extensive shrapnel damage.

“I did not want to let my mind go to thinking about what would have happened had a child been on the slide when the shrapnel struck,” said Jejna.

One of the lead local organizations providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion has been St. Mary’s Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine in downtown Phoenix.

Volunteers organized by St. Mary’s have organized and packed seven truckloads of medical and humanitarian supplies donated by local hospitals, first responders, and other individuals and entities and then paid to ship those items to Ukraine with donated funds. To help St. Mary’s with its ongoing humanitarian efforts go to: pokrovachurchphoenix.org/donate.

Judge Orest Jejna with combat medics in Washington D.C. (Submitted photo)