Thanks to efforts from a group of UF students, a city in Ukraine now has a more reliable and energy-efficient wastewater pump.
The Ukraine Rebuilding Initiative received word Dec. 9, 2025, that the new pump station it sent to Nizhyn, Ukraine, was successfully installed.
URI began in August 2023 under the leadership of co-founder Mikhail Mikhaylov, a 24-year-old UF international studies and political science alumnus. Mikhaylov’s mission was to connect Russian and Ukrainian students at UF to help rebuild communities targeted by war.
Mikhaylov spent a year building a relationship with Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward to establish Nizhyn as Gainesville's sister city in October 2024.
URI worked with a Ukrainian engineering firm and the Nizhyn City Council. Together, they designed a replacement for their previously aging and unreliable wastewater pump station to ensure the city could avoid a wastewater crisis during the war.
Mikhaylov said the members of URI gained skills that went beyond just engineering while working on the project. They also took on the roles of economists, government officials and diplomats.
“It's not just one element. It's not just one skill,” Mikhaylov said. “It's different ones that go beyond the sphere of just one student's focus and their area.”
Rylee Jarmolych, a 22-year-old UF civil engineering senior, is the group's engineering team lead. An unreliable wastewater pump, Jarmolych said, poses a big health concern and threatens a contamination disaster, which could impact Nizhyn’s water sources and agriculture.
After the problem was identified, URI received the $10,000 Projects for Peace grant from UF’s Brown Center for Leadership last March. The group allocated the money toward all five divisions of the club: prosthetics, cultural affairs, agriculture, public health and engineering.
With the grant secured, Jarmolych and her team spent nine months coordinating through language barriers, making careful calculations and executing every detail accurately. Jarmolych said this was a time full of challenges but was ultimately rewarding.
As a second-generation Ukrainian American with family in Ukraine, Jarmolych added the experience resonated with her on a deeper level.
“This opportunity to be able to help them has just been something I'm so beyond honored to have had,” she said. “I never really realized I’d be able to impact a city so far from me.”
The new pump will require 43% less energy than the previous system, Jarmolych said — an accomplishment that exceeded the city’s expectations for the project.
Markella Stavrinakis, a 22-year-old UF environmental engineering senior and URI’s environmental engineering lead, worked closely with Jarmolych.
The energy-efficient pump allows the wastewater system as a whole to become more reliable, Stavrinakis said. This prevents future failures during a time when Nizhyn’s energy infrastructure is at risk of being targeted.
Stavrinakis said this project put into perspective how much of an effect she can have as an engineering student.
“Being able to work on a project where you know that it will have a tangible effect is really rewarding,” she said.
Nizhyn Mayor Oleksandr Kodola said the city has seen immediate improvements in Nizhyn with the installation of the system.
The mayor wrote in an email to The Alligator that the system now runs more reliably, reducing the need for emergency responses. He added that these are direct benefits to the city’s public health and environment.
“This support means far more than technical assistance. It represents human connection, trust and shared values,” he wrote. “Knowing that the University of Florida community stands with Nizhyn reminds us that we are not alone.”
URI is continuing its efforts in helping Nizhyn through fundraising in hopes to replace the quality of the city’s water testing equipment.
Contact Alabama Weninegar at aweninegar@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @AlabamaW40513.
