CONGRESSMAN Ben Cline meets with Washington and Lee University students Yulia Kopalivska ’28, Tetiana Kozachanska ‘26 and Artem Tartakovskyi ’29 at the Sister City Exploratory Committee booth at the Rockbridge Community Festival. (Michele Bordone photo)
by
Local resident Alex Radsky signed up for a booth at the 2025 Rockbridge Community Festival on behalf of the Sister City Exploratory Committee, a group of local residents working to develop a sister city relationship between Lexington and a city in Ukraine.
He, along with Washington and Lee University student Tetiana Kozachanska, baked goods to raise money to support Ukrainian youth at the frontlines. Their efforts raised nearly $1,100 in donations which will go directly to dotyk. platform, an initiative which supports current and former students of the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, which Kozachanska is a graduate of. The donations help supply the students to survive on the front lines.
Offerings for the bake sale included horishky, a favorite Ukrainian dessert so called because it resembles its namesake – the walnut – as well as freshly baked bread known as palianytsia. The bread was important both culturally, as a staple of the Ukrainian peasant diet, and politically. According to anecdotal accounts, its pronunciation was often used to determine friend or foe during Ukraine’s multi-generational fight for freedom from Russia. The Ukrainian word is difficult for native Russian speakers to pronounce and was used in the past to identify Russian spies in local communities.
In the early afternoon, Ben Cline, representative for Virginia’s 6th Congressional District stopped by the booth and spoke with the Ukrainian students, who brought his attention to the petition in support of HR 3104.
Initiated by members of the Hosting Ukrainian Families Initiative (Jerry Nay, Chip Honsinger and Mark Nelson), the petition has been circulating for a few weeks in to the community and has garnered hundreds of signatures. The petition urges Congressman Cline to support the bill “which aims to provide a streamlined path for eligible Ukrainian nationals in the U.S. to adjust their status to legal permanent residents.” This bill, the Ukrainian Adjustment Act of 2025, is currently in the Judiciary Committee where Cline has a seat. HUF Director Jerry Nay is sending all of the petitions to Cline’s office.
Anyone interested in being part of the Sister City initiative and would like to be included in upcoming discussions can send an email to Dan Pezzoni at [email protected]. -For anyone who would like to support Ukraine and enjoy their own palianytsia, a recipe is found below. Consider sharing a picture of you and your family eating it on social media, with hashtags #supportukraine #palianytsia #billHR3104 #lexington4ukraine in support of Ukraine’s history, culture, and its people.
PALIANYTSIA RECIPE
600g (2 1/2cups) unbleached bread flour 400g (1 3/4cups) buttermilk 30g (¼ cup) neutral oil 1 egg 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk with the egg, sugar, and salt. Stir with a fork until mixed.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix in the oil until it starts to form a shaggy ball. Finish kneading on a floured surface until combined. Let the dough rest 5 to 10 minutes then divide into 4 equal parts.
Roll out each of the four balls into the shape and thickness of a pancake (to fit the size of your pan’s bottom). Prick the dough.
Preheat the pan on low/medium heat, and oil it sparingly. Carefully place one palianytsia in the pan so that it doesn’t fold over on itself. Cover and cook on low heat until the dough doubles in size. Flip the palianytsia to the other side and continue cooking covered on low heat until each side is golden brown. You can add more oil with each flip.
Remove from the pan and repeat the cooking process with the remaining three pieces of dough.
