February 13th, 2025
67,017 people evacuated from danger to date
76 people evacuated from danger this week
45 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Kostyantynivka. For the past two and a half years, one or more of our teams have regularly traveled there. Yet, it feels like the door is closing on this once-thriving city. Last week we shared a story of an evacuation from Kostyantynivka. This week one of our teams still managed to get in, delivering bread. But our evacuation teams can no longer enter directly— they now meet evacuees in Dobropillia, where armored vehicles bring people out from the city dying under Russian bombs. Still, 6,900 people stubbornly remain in Kostyantynivka.
This story reflects a broader pattern. Lyman, Kramatorsk, and every other town still under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk Region seems to be heading in the same direction, despite Ukrainian forces’ extraordinary courage in holding back the Russian advance. Yet, our teams continue their counterintuitive journey, always pushing toward the most dangerous areas, getting as close to the front line as possible.
Stories
Natasha and Tetiana Keep Going
The Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center) is run by two friends — Natasha, based in Kyiv and the first volunteer in the Ukraine TrustChain network, and Tetiana, based in Kryvyi Rih. Last week Tetiana returned to the Kherson Region delivering hygiene products to Liubimyvka. Tetiana's trip was a relatively routine one — an orderly distribution in a region struggling with infrastructure issues, but experiencing a measure of stability since the 2022 deoccupation.
Natasha continued her missions to besieged Lyman. This was her fourth trip. She has been methodically canvassing the town, delivering hygiene products that are in critically short supply. Local residents, who are already struggling, are often outpriced by military personnel buying up the same goods.
Natasha distributed supplies and passed package batches to street activists, who delivered them to areas she couldn’t access. Usually, she spends a night with friends in Kramatorsk before coming back to Kyiv. This time, however, Kramatorsk came under heavy bombardment, described by other teams in the area as massive and terrifying. The lights went out after the first explosion, leaving everyone to hunker down for hours, as blast after blast struck Kramatorsk. Natasha made it home safely. She and Tetiana are already preparing for their next trips in the coming days.
Community in Evacuation
Alena’s team, Virgo, traveled to Kherson to help an unusual group of people. These 325 families used to live in five nearby settlements — Myrolyubivka, Parysheve, Molodets’ke, Myrne, and Hrozove — until the advancing Russian army forced them to flee their homes. They now live with two to three families per house and hope one day to return. Until then, they try to stick together and help each other, but there are no jobs for them and they rely on aid from organizations like ours to get by.
Wrapping up Firewood Distributions
Several times this season we have thought that firewood distributions were almost done, but each time our teams have identified additional pockets of urgent need. Thanks to the support from our donors we are able to respond to these extra challenges. At this point we’ve fully deployed the reserves allocated to firewood deliveries, and are tracking final distributions before providing a comprehensive report to our community. The following excerpt from Inna’s team shows why these deliveries are still relevant:
We continue to deliver firewood to several locations near Kharkiv. Most of these are near Bohodukhiv, right by the border with Russia. The first trucks were sent to the villages located five to seven miles away from the border, which come under shelling. (The villages right on the border are empty — the residents were forced to evacuate.) Now we’ve gotten to the most remote villages, which suffer due to a complete absence of infrastructure. They don’t have stores, or bus routes. The electricity is out all the time due to shelling. We selected families where people were living in difficult conditions and having a hard time keeping their homes warm. The temperature has now dropped to -15 C and it is likely to stay that way through the end of February, so our help was very timely. We helped 64 households, and are now close to the finish line. We’re planning to get to the remaining families in the coming days.
Help in Occupied Territories
70 families received help in occupied territories.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
13 trips, evacuating 76 people from Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, Lyman, and Kostyantynivka areas.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
20.8 tons of aid delivered to 40 towns across Ukraine.
8,050 people received help.
6,600 people received bread.
At least 11 missions into high-risk areas, including Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka.
Delivered 236 cubic meters of firewood to 118 families in the most remote border areas.
Kherson Operations:
Rat exterminations in 6 buildings.
12 equipment maintenance tasks.
Covered up windows in one building.
Delivered medical equipment to a hospital in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Region.
Angelia Charitable Fund
Medical Clinic, February 3-4, 2025: provided free medical consultations and services to vulnerable groups, such as military families, retirees, people with disabilities, and other socially unprotected categories, in the village of Nyva Trudova (Dnipropetrovsk Region). Services included ECG studies, blood, urine, glucose and TSH laboratory tests, ultrasound, massage, and consultations with a cardiologist, psychiatrist, traumatologist, dentist, family doctor, gynecologist, and neurologist. 84 patients received a total of 327 services.
Humanitarian Aid: volunteer Volodymyr T went to Munich to get beds for a boarding house for the elderly and clothes. This aid will be delivered to Inna’s team, Krok z nadiyeyu.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): report for 2 weeks. Helped 180 internally displaced people (IDPs) and others in the Kyiv Region with medicines and vitamin complexes. Volunteer Maksym delivered 110 kg of targeted aid to 3 families in need. Aid included gift baby kits, bedding, diapers, toys, clothes, and baby food, and medicine. Distributed 60 kg of toys to children of military families in Konotop (Sumy Region). Delivered 300 kg of shoes and distributed 1 ton of baby food to IDP families in the Chernihiv Region. Provided 2,300-2,500 kg of food, hygiene, medicine, clothing, and a generator to 200 families. Delivered 25 boxes with 4 packages each of baby food to the social security department of the Vyshnivka city council.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and 7 tons to Kherson.
Andriy P (Chrnivtsi): unloading a minibus with aid from Germany in Mykolaiv. Mailing aid packages with groceries, hygiene products, gifts, clothes and shoes, and also tires and household appliances from Germany to Kherson, Nizhyn, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Molodizhne and Novooleksandrivka.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed over 800 people.
WeCare Centers (Lviv): acquired furniture, which will be distributed to care centers and schools throughout Ukraine. Delivered 11 tons of clothing and shoes to Lviv, Uman, Korosten’, Rivne, and Obukhiv.
Vitaliy Z (Kharkiv): brought 4 tons of humanitarian kits, medicines, clothing, and animal feed to Lyman and 2 additional tons of aid to Lyman and Druzhkivka. Distributed 300 loaves of bread in the deoccupied areas of the Balakliya community. Completed a third well in the Kramatorsk community, in the village of Krasnotorka.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to internally displaced (IDP) children and adults, children with disabilities, children from military families, and military veterans – held 3 art therapy sessions for a total of 93 children and military veterans.Visited the gym with 23 children. Visited a museum with 42 veterans and the theater with 63 children, veterans and their families. Distributed bread and other food to 380 students and 80 children living in IDP assistance centers. Conducted 90 medical procedures to improve the health of children with disabilities from Zaporizhia. Helped 18 newly arrived children from frontline areas with prophylactic health procedures, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and gym classes.
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
Darya, from Kharkiv, returned from an evacuation mission that lasted 36 hours. Exact number of people evacuated will be reported next week.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
104 people in the shelter.
Tetiana’s Team – Dopomoha poruch (Help Is Near)
Distributed 150 aid packages in Zaporizhzhia.
Distributed 200 aid packages in Kharkiv.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Natasha delivered 260 packages to Lyman.
Tetiana from Kryvyi Rih traveled to Liubimyvka in the Kherson Region, delivering 216 packages.
Timur’s Team — Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
Distributed aid packages to 345 families in the hard-hit parts of Kharkiv.
Special deliveries to 27 families with babies and 18 disabled elderly.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams – Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
19.1 tons of vegetables delivered to Luch, Zasillya Voskrensensk, Shevchenkove and Novomykolaivka.
439 families received vegetables last week.
Final fuel briquettes delivery of this season is scheduled for this week.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
390 families received aid in Mar’ivka near Zaporizhzhia and Studenok on the border of Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
24 tons of water delivered to Nikopol.
Marina’s Team – Daruy dobrо Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages distributed to internally displaced people in Zhovty Vody.
Dina’s Team — Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 425 packages of aid in Kremenchuk, Poltava, Kanev, and Dnipro.
The soup kitchen in Kharkiv served 1,380 meals.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
42 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
At the club for children with disabilities, both kids and parents participated in psychological relief games and theater classes, giving parents a much-needed break as well.
Alena – Diva (Virgo)
Traveled to Kherson to deliver aid to over 830 people (325 packages, plus 500 loaves of bread and sweet buns).
Liza and Katia continue to support hospital wards, caring for 12 wounded last week.
Anastasia’s Team – LoveUA
Finished drilling a well in Krasnotorka, near Kramatorsk.
How to Help
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