Ukraine Defense Support and our wonderful partner Toloka were honored to welcome NAVKA to our region for a special concert featuring a wide range of her beautiful Ukrainian songs. We were also honored to meet her husband, Serhiy, who is one of Ukraine’s brave defenders. Together, the couple shared beautiful Ukrainian culture, a bit of news from Ukraine, and helped raise money to support Ukraine’s frontline defenders and communities.
Serhiy is a twice-decorated Ukrainian veteran who served in both 2014 and from 2022 – 2025. He is the first Ukrainian to shoot down a guided russian missile with a U.S. Stinger missile, and is also the first to shoot down a russian-launched iranian Shahed drone with another drone, proving once again that what many once thought was impossible, can be done by Ukrainians fiercely defending their families, friends, and country.
Ukrainian popstar NAVKA (Maryna) keeps Ukrainian’s folk songs alive and uplifts hearts weighed down by 3.5 years of brutal russian warfare and war crimes. Her warm and caring spirit and voice bring people to their feet to dance and sing cherished songs with her. You can listen to some of these songs celebrating different areas in Ukraine here.
We asked the couple what they think Americans should know about russia’s invasion and ongoing war against Ukraine. They shared two key points:
One is that Americans should be more aware of the vast reaches and power of russia’s propaganda machine. It reaches even mainstream media now and influences what millions of people think. It seeks to erase truths on a massive scale, including erasing Ukrainian culture and history, decades of its war crimes around the world, and everything regarding its own bloody history, including its involvement in WWII. Disrupting elections when and where democracies are on the line is one of its many propaganda specialities. Americans should be much more skeptical of any media touched by russia, no matter how obliquely.
The second key point they want Americans to know is that russia is only just beginning its push to rebuild the soviet union. The war in Ukraine is not an end-point. It is a starting line. The aggressor’s recent drone and MIG incursions into various countries’ airspaces, including the United States in Alaska, and its recent mapping of undersea communications cables offers proof. Serhiy and Maryna advise that everyone should be prepared, pay attention, and “get ready.”
“Get ready” was the theme of Ukraine’s entry in the 2025 Burning Man festival in Nevada, a huge black cloud balloon structure that was unfortunately destroyed in a strong dust storm that swept the festival the same day it was inflated. You can read more about that here.
The couple shared a reminder that all who love freedom should never forget. “russians are doing terrible things, because they can,” said Serhiy. They will continue to do terrible, unspeakable things until they are stopped by force.
