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The Russian Army was amassing at the Ukrainian border, and Britni Davidson\u2014 deputy executive director of the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association\u2014 worried about her good friend, Alessia Shapovalova.<\/p>\n
Davidson sent a text to Shapovalova: \u201cAre you guys still in Kyiv? Are you OK?\u201d<\/p>\n
To her relief, the reply came immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, my family is still in Kyiv,\u201d Shapovalova wrote. \u201cWe have a bomb shelter in our house so people from other houses can come and stay in safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surreal text exchange gave Davidson some comfort after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a brutal invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
News organizations reported an indiscriminate campaign of mortar and artillery shells killing innocent people in residential neighborhoods of Kyiv\u2014a sprawling capital city of 2.8 million people.<\/p>\n
Satellite images showed a snaking 40-mile convoy of Russian tanks and troops marching on the capital.<\/p>\n
While Americans are mortified by what they witness on television, arguably few have a personal connection to a distant country with a complicated history and even more complicated politics.<\/p>\n
For Davidson, the tragedy had a human face\u2014one she never anticipated.<\/p>\n The two women met in the fall of 2018 when Shapovalova came to Salem as a participant in a U.S. State Department Fellowship Program for emerging leaders from partner nations. Shapovalova, who worked for Ukraine\u2019s Ministry and Ecology of Natural Resource, had a deep interest in climate change and renewable energy policy.<\/p>\n The city of Salem asked leaders with Salem Electric\u2014 a 19,000-member urban co-op with one of the cleanest energy portfolios in the nation\u2014to host Shapovalova.<\/p>\n The co-op readily agreed. Davidson, who then served as Salem Electric\u2019s member services manager, volunteered to be the point person.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I knew was that I wanted to make it a meaningful experience for her,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cShe was incredibly eager to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n Davidson introduced Shapovalova to scores of local leaders and energy experts across the state.<\/p>\n The two went on the road, with Davidson scheduling an ambitious tour of Oregon\u2019s vast renewable resources: solar farms, landfill gas projects and a memorable day with Davidson\u2019s two daughters at Bonneville Dam.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a whirlwind month,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure who learned more\u2014she or I.\u201d<\/p>\n Shapovalova clearly learned something. Her mandatory U.S. State Department project for participants won a prestigious award. She was effusive about Salem Electric and the Northwest energy program.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate that your energy and environmental policies are so progressive when it comes to climate change,\u201d she said during her time in Salem. \u201cI hope the leaders of my country will be as progressive as yours.\u201d<\/p>\n During the month together, the two women also became fast friends, shopping for Levi\u2019s jeans\u2014which cost several hundred dollars in Ukraine\u2014and staying in touch long after Shapovalova returned to Ukraine to work on energy policy. There was talk of Davidson visiting her in Ukraine, but no one could foresee a worldwide pandemic\u2014or a senseless war.<\/p>\n During Russia\u2019s military build-up, Shapovalova acknowledged they were \u201cstressed a little about informational attacks,\u201d but that \u201ceverything is working OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon, everything would be far from OK as Russia launched its blood-soaked assault, killing innocent civilians and ripping the country apart. After more than two months of warfare, the United Nations estimates more than 10 million people have fled their homes.<\/p>\n Davidson has reminded her friend that she and her family have a place to stay in America if they want to flee the country.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family doesn\u2019t want to leave Kyiv,\u201d Shapovalova wrote, noting that her family plays an indispensable role in a conflict.<\/p>\n Her father works for the government. Her mother is a doctor, and her brother is with a Ukrainian National Guard unit protecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from would-be assassins.<\/p>\n \u201cAlessia is a talented person who wants to make the world a better place,\u201d Davidson said, lamenting those dreams appear secondary to surviving a cruel onslaught with no end in sight.<\/p>\n If Davidson was initially the mentor in their relationship, she knows their roles are now reversed and have nothing to do with clean energy.<\/p>\n \u201cAlessia and the Ukrainian people are teaching all of us a lesson in humanity and resilience\u2014each and every day,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two women in energy\u2014unlikely friends\u2014live 5,600 miles apart. One worries as her friend faces an uncertain future in war-torn Ukraine. By Ted Case The Russian Army was amassing at the Ukrainian border, and Britni Davidson\u2014 deputy executive director of the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association\u2014 worried about her good friend, Alessia Shapovalova. Davidson sent a […]\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":34289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34290,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34286\/revisions\/34290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.oreca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/c-400-pp04-05-May2022_Page_2_Image_0002-800x548.jpg\")
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