January 5, 2023
48,570 people evacuated from danger to date
26 people evacuated this week
25 separate trips into deoccupied and frontline territories
For our teams, the new year celebrations this year were entirely consistent with the strange Boschian absurdity of the last 10 months. As we started to exchange new year greetings with our Kyiv, Mykolayiv, and Odesa volunteers, the rockets and drone attacks started to hit the neighborhoods where our Kyiv volunteers live. Russia’s terrorist rulers clearly timed these attacks to disrupt new year celebrations within Ukraine, but the response was paradoxical. As soon as the explosions ceased, people of Kyiv redoubled their united, defiant cheers from their balconies, rejoicing and celebrating in the darkness without fear.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Kseniia’s Team — NGO Livyj Bereh
Kseniia's team continues to restore buildings destroyed by Russian aggressors. This week along with three more residential homes, they rebuilt an outpatient clinic in Slatyne village, Charkiv region. It was badly damaged when a projectile landed directly on the roof of the building. Immediately after the liberation of this region, there were up to 300 people in the village remaining and all of them needed medical attention and a doctor's exam. Currently, there are approximately 600 residents in the village. Hospitals and small medical centers in other villages have been destroyed; that is why Slatyne hospital, after renovation, will serve as a support medical facility for nearby villages. Kseniia reported the completion of 21st Kharkiv region repairs.
We received detailed information from the Kherson team we support through Kseniia. Despite the fact that one of the two leaders of that team lost their house last week to Russian bombs, the team delivered aid to 1,149 families in 9 villages in the most difficult areas of the Kherson region. In the days preceding the new year, they organized two New Year celebrations distributing gifts to 290 children.
Natalia’s Team
On December 28th, Natalia took another trip to Lyman and the village of Ozerne that sits between Kramatorsk and Siversk, close to the active frontline. They delivered 290 food packages. However, besides the regular distribution, Natalia performed somewhat of a logistics miracle this time delivering 34 sets of reinforced glass, for the families with multiple children in Lyman that have to live in darkness behind cold plywood windows. There is a risk that repeat attacks will take the windows out again, but the locations where the new windows will be installed were carefully vetted by Natalia to minimize this risk.
Oleksandr’s Team
Oleksandr D continues his work with organizing aid to a subnetwork of volunteer teams.
Oleksandr S’ team in Boyarka (about 15 miles southeast of Kyiv) delivered generators and prepared food kits for victims of military aggression. Oleksandr also met with executives of a construction company regarding plans to restore damaged housing.
Vladyslav K’s team delivered 27 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv and changed out filters on existing water wells. His internally displaced persons assistance center also distributed 900 loaves of bread, 150 food kits and about 200 kg of clothes.
Sandra S’ kitchen in Odesa prepared and served meals for 1,325 refugees arriving by rail. On one of the days, the distribution had to happen in the dark in the light of kerosene lamps; on another day, the train station was sealed off due to a bomb threat, forcing them to serve meals on the nearby street.
Viktor V’s team in Lutsk delivered five tons of humanitarian aid to a distribution center based in an elementary school in Kherson. The aid included ready-made grocery kits, clothes, shoes, warm blankets, candles and flashlights.
A team which remains anonymous for safety reasons delighted residents in an enemy-occupied city by staging a children’s program and delivering food packages for the New Year’s holiday. The packages included apples, canned corn, bread and one orange per person.
Nazarii P’s team evacuated two more people from Kherson this week. On the way back from last week’s evacuation the team brought 1,500 kg of food, hygiene products and winter clothes back to Kherson. Nazarii's friends from Europe also sent a bus of humanitarian aid to the Kherson Region, along with two generators of 2 kW each, diapers, clothes, shoes, hygiene, medical supplies, sweets, water and baby food. The total delivery amounted to more than two tons distributed to 700 people and families.
Timur’s Team
The last week of the year did not see Timur and Team slowing down. Over 600 aid packages and packages with hygiene items, food, blankets, and flash lights were delivered to Kovsharovka, Tishki, and Saltivka. The team also dedicated funds and energy to packing and delivering almost 1,000 gift bags to the children of the Saltivka region for the New Year. These are the children that continue to live in the dark cold rubble of destroyed neighborhoods.
Another of the team’s deliveries was a stark reminder of the duration and brutality of this war. Timur’s team delivered gift bags for New Years to the same children in the same basements as their first deliveries over 9 months ago. There were so many children that the dark, damp basement was filled. This time, though, it was transformed by twinkling lights and laughter as Timur and Team brought small gifts. Even if just for a moment, there was joy as the bitter cold and dark remained outside.
Karina’s Team
This week, Karina’s team completed the first part of the major project on which we collaborated, delivering wood stoves to the areas with destroyed infrastructure. A group specializing in deliveries to Kherson delivered a busload of wood stoves (87 total) into the Kherson region. In the village of Antonivka the bombardment started unexpectedly when the volunteers were still in the village.
It’s important to note that with the artillery Russia uses against civilians, one is likely to sustain a severe injury or be killed if they are in the open within 150m of the explosion, as shrapnel pieces reach with lethal power much further.
Other teams evacuated two large families from Bahmut – 17 people, including 7 children, who agreed to spend the New Year in safety. One of the families is set on returning into the town after January 7 – this steely determination to stay within the combat zone is hard to understand for us, but it is a psychological reality for the families that have stayed in Bahmut this far. 7 elderly were evacuated from Kherson.
The shelter continued to function as usual. There were of course preparations for the New Year celebration. We covered dental services for two children staying at the shelter.
Dina’s Team
One of the many things Dina’s team was managing in the last couple weeks was organizing holidays for children. As part of this effort Dina made purchases and wrote to candy manufacturers across Ukraine asking for donations of sweets. Some of the manufacturers responded and last week, Dina’s team was able to visit orphanages and distribute these gifts.
Additionally, her team distributed 630 food packages in two cities. Much of Dina’s bandwidth was taken up with year-end reporting prep, which is becoming an increasingly stressful item for all of our teams.
Tetiana’s Team
This week Tetiana’s team gave out extra nice aid packages because of the holidays – they contained sausages and cheese which are not normally included. When Tetiana and her husband were buying food for the aid packages, they were caught outside during a Russian rocket attack with nowhere to hide, and witnessed a rocket being shot down.
85 families received aid, and Tetiana also delivered packages to elderly and people with disabilities who could not reach the aid distribution site. The team was also able to procure a truck-load of firewood and delivered it to the summer camp housing refugees – there is no central heat there and people in the camp rely on potbelly stoves for warmth. The elderly, women and children living in the camp said the firewood was the best New Years present they could hope for.
Inna’s Team
In December, UTC started the “Bread Project” with Inna Kampen sponsoring bread production and delivery to the areas of greatest need. In the last week, the project reached its peak capacity. 10,000 loaves of bread were distributed in the Kharkiv region, Nikopol, and the Kherson region.
In addition to 10,000 people receiving bread, 27.7 tons of food and hygienic products were distributed to more than 8,600 people. In particular Inna’s teams were able to reach areas that are temporarily completely cut off from normal supply routes, including Davydiv Brod in the Kherson region where about 10% of the pre-war population remains trapped in basements. This was a repeat visit. This time Inna brought along additional wood stoves, and gifts for the children remaining there.
Inna’s Kryvij Rih team reached Berislav in the Kherson region as well, delivering food and blankets. Some people receiving aid reported being out of food items. 2 tons of aid were delivered to Maryinka and Bahmut – in the most dangerous battle zone of the war. Aid was distributed at 21 more locations, 2 of them in the deoccupied areas of Kharkiv region.
Finally, another joint project is underway providing firewood to people in the deoccupied areas of the Kharkiv region, where wood is not easily available and needs to be brought in from the outside. We will be reporting on the progress of this project in future newsletters.
Pavel’s Team
Due to interruptions to Internet connectivity we obtained reports for last week’s efforts, but are missing information on the last few days of activity. Around Christmas, Pavel traveled to Germany to coordinate additional large-scale deliveries of aid to Ukraine. On the way back both he and his wife came down with a serious sickness and had to recover for a couple of days. In the meantime, their volunteer team took turns traveling home to see their families.
Pavel’s distribution centers continue to serve multiple communities across Ukraine, distributing 70 packages a week in the Sumy region. 5.5 tons of aid, including 4.5 tons of food, three generators and donated warm clothing were delivered to Mykolayiv. 4.5 tons of aid were delivered to the still-devastated villages situated between Mykolayiv and Kherson. 1,050 people were fed in Matviivka and Balovne. 5 tons of aid for 450 people were delivered to Zaporizhzhya. Food, diapers and clothing were delivered to their Kharkiv center.
Pavel’s trip to Germany secured 80 tons of aid that has already arrived in Ukraine. 51.5 tons were delivered to 5,600 people along with 16 wood stoves, generators and other items.
Andriy’s Team — NGO Pomahaem
Through December 29, Andriy’s team distributed packages to 492 refugee families out of their Dnipro warehouse. 115 people including 21 kids continue to live in Andriy’s shelters.
Using grants and aid received from other organizations, Andriy’s team delivered warmth-centered aid to 350 families in Novomoskovsk (heaters, flashlights, blankets or warm sleeping bags).
Alena’s Team
Alena took another trip to the Kherson region to the village of Novokyivka. Although so far this year, the weather has been sparingly mild, this results in particularly difficult road conditions. Alena delivered 170 packages with the van almost floating in mud. But the mission was successful. Alena was able to deliver a generator, establish another heating center — an “invincibility point” in modern Ukrainian — at a local school. She is planning another mission in the Odesa region and new invincibility points as we write this letter.
US Team Updates
We want to thank Project Kesher for continuing to sponsor aid to the Kherson region.
As we welcome the new year, we look ahead with hope of free skies, peace, and victory for Ukraine. While celebrations were abound this past week, our volunteers continued their harrowing work of supporting Ukrainians who are starving, living in darkness, and freezing. Volunteers continue to perform this work with no compensation. To honor their ceaseless efforts, and support full-time volunteers encouraging them to continue this selfless and dangerous work, Ukraine TrustChain for the third time this year, gave volunteers a financial stipend of a few hundred dollars. Our US team also recorded a video with translated messages of hope from UTC supporters.
Though we had not known it, the financial stipend came at a crucial moment. Volunteers' texts and videos sent back were very emotional; all were overflowing with gratitude. One volunteer shared that this money will allow them to have an urgent medical procedure; others were about to lose their home.
Another volunteer sent a heart-felt message to us in a video, telling us that helping people each day gives her life a purpose that she hadn’t experienced before. Prior to Ukraine TrustChain and the daily support that generous donors provided, she shared that she had never known that this part of herself existed. She went on to say that she was so joyfully and unexpectedly surprised when she received a financial gift for the New Year, and how good it feels to be supported and taken care of in this way.
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, or LinkedIn 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.