Yanina Nickless has tried every way she knows how to persuade them, but her parents will not budge.

As Russian troops move closer to the farming village where she grew up in Kherson Oblast, a province in the southeaster corner of Ukraine, Nickless’ parents are steadfast.

“They have said they are not leaving, they are not leaving my grandfathers, they’re going to stay until the end,” said Nickless, 27, of Old Orchard Beach. “I talked to my dad, and he said, ‘You are my biggest weakness and I know you’re safe so I can go join the territorial defense force and help Ukraine.'”

For the last six years, Nickless has called Old Orchard Beach home, one among the Ukrainian diaspora who have watched, sick with worry, as Russian troops march closer to Kyiv and threaten the destruction of her homeland.

On Tuesday, Nickless was named a virtual guest of Rep. Chellie Pingree to attend the State of the Union Address. Pingree said she could not welcome Nickless in person because of a restriction against permitting non-members into the house Chamber, but wanted to convey her support for the Ukrainian people.

“I think everyone right now is glued to the TV, watching these families going through huge challenges in Ukraine,” Pingree said in an interview Tuesday. “It would help people understand how small the world is and how important of a conflict this is to be involved with.”

Pingree and other members of Congress received a secure briefing Monday from top Biden administration officials. World leaders are coalescing behind Ukraine, but the moment is perilous. As the conflict accelerates, it’s difficult to know what military options Putin may pursue, she said.

“It’s hard to stand by and know that we have the greatest military in the world, and with NATO, we’re the strongest power in the world, and Ukraine is not a NATO country and we’re dealing with a incredible unstable leader who has access to nuclear weapons,” Pingree said. “In the NATO countries, I think there’s still a lot of resistance to escalate our involvement to not start World War III with Russia or for Russia to start World War III with us.”

Nickless said she was honored, but also wary, when she received the call on Monday from Pingree’s office extending the symbolic invitation. Nickless works for the town of Kennebunkport and wants to remain apolitical. But she realized that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not a partisan issue here and felt happy to represent her country.

When she spoke on Tuesday with her parents, Nickless’ mother cried at the news.

“She said she’s very proud of me and said it’s so wonderful, and she’s really hoping for the best,” Nickless said.

Nickless’ life in the United States began in 2014, the same year of the Revolution of Dignity, when student protests across the nation led to the ouster of a pro-Russian president, who had refused to sign onto a trade deal with the European Union.

That same year, Putin capitalized on the chaos and annexed the Crimean peninsula, which connects to Kherson, and sent troops to support pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region in the east, starting a slow-burning, bloody conflict that continued in the disputed regions until the invasion last week.

At the time, Nickless was a student at Kherson State University, and recalled the upheaval and uncertainty – as well as the destruction – that the revolution had brought. In Kyiv, she remembers the sight of burning buildings.

The Maidan revolution was a defining moment for her generation, said Nickless, who was 19 at the time. Ukraine had been an independent nation for more than two decades.

“That revolution was about my generation because it was the time when Ukrainians wanted to move more toward Europe,” she said. “Ukrainians realized we’ve been peaceful with Russia, and we always called them our older brothers and sisters, but we realized we have our own identity.”

That summer she applied through a J1 visa program to work in Maine. Nickless wanted to find a way to be close to her university English teacher, an American from the Washington, D.C. area and Peace Corps volunteer. With the teacher’s help, Nickless settled on Maine, and landed a house-keeping job at the Beau Rivage Motel in Old Orchard Beach.

She returned the next year, too, and got married in July 2015 to a Mainer whose family owns a motel in Old Orchard, she said.

Nickless became a full-time student in 2016, applied for residency status and graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 2019 with a focus in political science and international relations, and was one of the commencement speakers at her graduation.

Nickless remains fearful for her parents. Before the February invasion, Kherson was not heavily militarized by the Ukrainian Army. But it is home to a key water processing plant that supplies drinking water to the Crimean peninsula, and was among the first targets to be attacked last week.

Still, her parents refuse to leave. Until something changes, she will continue to call them twice a day, and continue to keep alive faith that she will reunite with parents.

“Truly 100 percent feel I will still see my family and still see Ukraine,” she said.

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