Kharkiv luminary takes page out of US governors’ playbook

Just over two years ago, Kharkiv Regional Council chairwoman Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko was forced to grab her two sons and go into hiding as invading Russian troops sought to assassinate locally elected officials, especially those aligned with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People Party that the university law professor serves as deputy party chief.

The battle for Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city located kilometers from the Russian border, was more violent, more deadly than the Russian blitz to take out Zelensky and his government in the capital, Kiev.

The heroic resistance and defense of Kharkiv shocked Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin henchmen, who fully expected the predominantly Russian-speaking city to capitulate and welcome the invading soldiers rather than fight a block-by-block insurgency, leaving large swaths of working-class apartment complexes in rubble.

But two years after the invasion, Yehorova-Lutsenko has expanded her role by leading economic development to the region, such as persuading a Canadian company to build thousands of high-quality prefabricated homes for displaced workers from occupied Donetsk that now work in Kharkiv-based factories.

Yehorova-Lutsenko, who became the president of the Ukrainian association of locally elected officials last year, is now copying a page from the highly successful model used by US governors to promote economic investment in their home states: foreign trade missions accompanied by accomplished and dynamic business leaders.

Her direct counterpart in the United States is Utah Governor Spencer Cox, the current chairman of the National Governors Association.

Not only has Utah been the US state most active in Ukraine – leading numerous people