February 27th, 2025
67,181 people evacuated from danger to date
80 people evacuated from danger this week
43 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Last week marked three years since Russia unleashed its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Every year since then, in the last week of February, we relive those early days. Four days after the start of the invasion, our community coalesced around Ukrainian volunteers and created Ukraine TrustChain. But during those first four days we couldn’t act. We were in shock, full of horror and disbelief that such genocidal invasions were still possible. Like many others around the world we expected Ukraine to fall quickly. In that critical time, Ukrainians acted alone, exceeding our wildest hopes. They inflicted rightful vengeance on thousands of Russian invaders and built their resistance, which continues to this day.
Though, the situation once again seems dire and we fear that the US government might discontinue military support for Ukraine, we remember those early days, and Ukraine’s persistent ability to surprise those who doubt its strength. Our volunteers continue their work. We are grateful to all those who stand with them.
Stories
Alena’s Valentine’s Day Event on NBC News
Last Monday, a children’s Valentine’s Day celebration conducted by Alena’s team in a Kherson bomb shelter, received some special visitors from NBC. News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel interviewed the kids and volunteers, as part of a story about recent political events. The event was warm and welcoming, but it’s heart-wrenching to see the shell-shocked faces of the children who can only celebrate inside a bomb shelter.
The two clips of the event — the NBC Nightly News (beginning at 1:05) and the Today show (beginning at 1:26) — are short, but the celebration meant a lot for the participants. Alena and Yuliya have received many expressions of gratitude and smiles for those minutes of joy from the children and their families. We pass their thanks on to you, our community, for making the celebration possible with your donations!
We would like to welcome the new donors who found us after watching the NBC story! Thank you very much for your first donation to support projects such as this Valentine’s Day event. We also thank our new and repeat donors for the financial contributions and the words of encouragement we have received in the last few weeks, demonstrating that many Americans still stand strong with Ukraine.
Increasing Danger in Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Kosyantynivka
Our evacuation team Dobra sprava reports seeing an increase in calls from Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, and Druzhkivka. People are starting to panic and check evacuation routes as shelling has intensified. For the past five or six days, these communities have been targeted by FAB-250 (guided bombs capable of causing massive damage). Many people have been injured, and some have unfortunately died. In the last two days, a children’s school and a psychiatric and neurological residential facility for the elderly have also been destroyed.
Olga, who evacuated this week from Kostyantynivka, reports on the situation in her city:
Compared to January, the shelling has become more intense. Fewer people are on the streets, though you can still find residents riding bicycles. The Russians are almost continuously shelling the neighborhoods with artillery, dropping bombs, destroying infrastructure, and ruining the homes of civilians.
Since the beginning of the year, Russian strikes have caused daily damage to between 10 and 40 private houses. Some homes have been completely destroyed. In those that have suffered lesser damage, people quickly clear the glass from the road and from under entrances and try to cover the windows with plastic and construction materials and to repair the roof.
In January, during another Russian attack, I was riding a bus. The loud noise frightened the passengers and the bus stopped. People fell silent and began crossing themselves. I haven’t seen so many believers in a public place in a long time. Craters from mines and destruction from missile strikes are now visible in every part of the city. There are no safe areas left.
Since February this year, anti-tank hedgehogs have appeared along the roads. There are no drone nets over the city's main arteries yet — they only cover certain potential targets. I hope the engineers have plans to protect the city's roads from the aerial threat. But the authorities are buying materials to set up obstacles and defensive structures. This is somewhat reassuring and gives me some hope that the enemy won’t be able to capture our city.
Our Religion Is Life
Victoria is passionate about saving animals. "Some people study different religions," she says. "Our religion is life." Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Victoria has been running an "island of refuge" shelter for farm animals and pets in the village of Shostakivka. Hers is the only such organization in the Donetsk Region. Animals are a big problem for people who are fleeing their homes, she explains. Nobody wants them — they smell, they make a mess. So the owners are forced to abandon or slaughter them. Victoria tells the refugees "Leave your animals with us."
Very well loved and cared-for farm animals crowd the barn where Victoria and Vitaliy are talking. Pigs, goats, geese and chickens, all with human names – a particular sign of love for an animal in Ukraine – wander around. Vitaliy picks up a goat and attempts to convince a pig to give him its “paw.” Victoria points out a particularly interesting green chicken, "for good luck." At home Victoria has 60 dogs and the shelter also houses 120 cats. All the animals are rescued.
Victoria and her team are vegans. Their mission is solely to protect the animals. But the shelter has attracted some unwanted attention from people who see the animals in a very different light, as a source of meat or possibly a commodity for sale. Once an armed man barged into the barn in the middle of the night and tried to steal a pig and a panicked cow. But the staff stood their ground. "It was life defending life," says Victoria. The situation is precarious, but Victoria and her staff are determined to do whatever it takes for their beloved animals.
The True Meaning of Shelter
In the span of a dramatic five days, in the spring of 2022, Karina and a team of volunteers working around the clock, turned an empty office space in Dnipro into a functioning shelter for people fleeing from the frontline. Some refugees stayed temporarily, but a core of families banded together, forming a sort of urban village community inside the shelter. Unfortunately, the building owner did not renew their lease for 2025 and the shelter had to find a new home.
This humble space has meant so much to its residents. "Here, it's not just walls: it's human warmth. We have breakfast together, share news together, and support each other," says Olga, who came from Bakhmut.
"I thought I would never feel at home again. But here it feels like everyone has become one big family," shares Maksym, from Avdiivka.
The shelter continues to receive new evacuees every day. Some spend a few days to get their bearings and move on. Others have nowhere else to go and stay longer. For many, the shelter is a chance to start life anew. They have lost their homes, jobs, and everything they had built over the years. Here, they can take the time to adapt; here, they feel that they are not alone, that there are those nearby who will lend a helping hand.
There is a shared kitchen, a resting area, and a small corner for children. Everyone helps one another — some cook, some repair furniture, and some simply offer encouragement with kind words.
Thanks to your support, all the residents are provided with everything they need: bedding, hygiene products, and food. Natalia, from Mariupol, sums it up like this: "We have the most important things — warmth, care, and the feeling that we have not been abandoned."
Help in Occupied Territories
70 families received help in the occupied towns of Ukraine.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
14 trips, evacuating 79 people from the general directions of Pokrovsk, Rodyns’ke, Bilyts’ke, Shakhove, Mezhova, Lyman, and Kostyantynivka.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
20.6 tons of aid delivered to 42 towns.
7,950 people helped + 6000 people received bread.
12 high-risk location missions.
Kherson work: exterminations in 8 buildings; covered up windows in one apartment damaged by bombing; 14 equipment maintenance tasks completed; evacuated a cat from Kherson red zone.
Brought 2 masseuses and 2 barbers from Dnipro to Sloviansk in Donbas, helping 35 people for whom this was a welcome opportunity to release stress and take care of themselves.
Held activities for children in Druzhkivka.
Provided medical supplies to Kharkiv city hospital.
Provided plastic sheeting for emergency repairs at Kharkiv hospital destroyed by Russian attacks. The hospital has resumed operation.
Angelia Charitable Fund
Volodymyr T brought 1,344 kg of humanitarian aid from Germany to Chernivtsi. From Miesbach: 7 medical beds; from Munich: a wheelchair, food, and used clothes and shoes. On a second trip, Volodymyr delivered 2 boxes of food to Inna’s team Krok z nadiyeyu and the rest of the above aid to the Harmony rehabilitation center in Samar (Dnipropetrovsk Region). A total of 150 people were helped in this period.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S (Boyarka): delivered 1.5 tons of baby food, diapers, clothes, toys, generators, medicine, and household chemicals to Krolevets’ (Sumy Region). Delivered 100 10 liter canisters to a humanitarian center in Boyarka for use in providing further aid. Provided 300 kg of baby food to a social services center in the Kyiv Region. This will be distributed to low-income families, people with disabilities, and internally displaced people (IDPs). Helped a family with children’s clothes, food, and diapers. Volunteers helped neighbors put out fires from burning houses in Krasnopillya (Sumy Region), near the Russian border, which experienced heavy shelling.
Vladyslav K (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv.
Sandra S (Odesa): kitchen fed more than 1,000 people.
WeCare Centers (Lviv): delivered a total of 4,000-5,00 kg of clothing and rice mixture to IDPs, low income people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable categories in Khmelnytskyi, Uman, Obukhiv, and Pereyaslav.
Vitaliy Z (Kharkiv): brought 3.5 tons of humanitarian kits, medicines, clothing, and animal feed to Stavky, near Lyman. Proposed evacuation. Brought 2 tons of aid, as well as 22 tons of fuel briquettes for 74 households, to Lyman. Delivered 300 loaves of bread in the Kramatorsk community and another 300 in Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka. Provided 2.5 tons of animal feed to an animal refuge in the village of Shostakivka (Donetsk Region). Evacuated a disabled woman from Kostyantynivka to the Poltava Region.
Oksana K (Lutsk): sent a 70 kg aid package to Kramatorsk and another 30 kg food package in the Donetsk direction. Distributed 75 kg of clothes, 45 kg of hygiene products, and 36 kg of grains and pasta in Lutsk. Distributed 25-30 kg of pasta and hygiene products in Kivertsi. Provided food and baby diapers to a military family. Provided 100 kg of diapers and food to chaplains who are heading East to deliver aid.
Oleksandr Z (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to IDP children and adults, military veterans, orphans, children with disabilities, children from military families and from large families – held 4 art therapy sessions for a total of 69 children and military personnel. Visited the theater with 58 IDP families and their children with disabilities and a fair with 50 IDP students, children with disabilities and their families. Distributed bread and other food to 380 IDPs and 70 students and orphans living in IDP assistance centers. Provided glasses for 16 adults and children. Conducted 64 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, gym classes, and 12 prostheses. Held a business fair, featuring veterans who returned from the front and started their own businesses. This is a platform for helping veterans acquire a new profession.
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
New batch of homes are being restored in Lezhyne, Zaporizhzhia Region. Completed restoration of 3 homes last week.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
107 people in the shelter.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Another trip to Lyman, delivering 242 packages to Lyman and three villages near it. Lyman remains one of the most dangerous towns on the front line.
Timur’s Team – Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
Delivered 374 aid packages in Saltivka.
Special deliveries to 18 disabled elderly and 23 families with infants.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams – Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
Delivered aid to 171 families in Liubomyrivka and Shevchenkove.
Delivered fuel briquettes to 87 families in Kvitneve. Also provided warm clothing for children and adults.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
341 packages delivered to Kherson, Marhanets’ and Bilen’ke near Zaporizhzhia — all high-risk areas.
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 Pyatikhatky.
150 packages distributed in Saksahan community.
Dina’s Team — Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
375 packages distributed in Kremenchuk, Poltava, and Kanev.
Served 1,190 meals in the soup kitchen in Kharkiv.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
42 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
Alena – Diva (Virgo)
Distributed 536 packages of aid in Kherson.
Held a Valentine’s Day party for children in Kherson and distributed gifts to 54 children.
Distributed bread to 1,440 people in January.
Distributed 60 liters of fuel for a bomb shelter generator in Kherson, used by 150-200 people who live in 5 nearby 9-story apartment buildings.
Delivered bread, clothes, shoes, food and hygiene products to 50 families in Pavlo-Mar'yanivka, and to a family with 12 children in Mykolaiv.
Liza and Katia continue to support the hospital ward, caring for 14 wounded.
Anastasia’s Team – LoveUA
Delivered 250 food and 250 hygiene packages to Osykove and Oleksijevo-Druzhkivka.
How to Help
Donate — The money goes directly to teams providing aid on the ground, who respond dynamically to the most urgent needs.
Fundraise — Organize fundraisers at your school, work, place of worship, with friends and family, etc.
Spread the word — Share our website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Bluesky Social with your friends, family, and colleagues.
Fill out this form if you’re interested in volunteering with us, and we’ll let you know when opportunities come up.
Download and print our flyer. Ask your local coffee shop if you can add it to the bulletin, or use it as part of your fundraiser.