This is the third week that we start our letter acknowledging the extreme hardship our teams endure due to the absence of electricity, heat, and water.

Even without light.

The city is cheering happily, even though for eight days we haven’t had light, water or heat, but we have ZSU (Ukrainian Armed Forces).

We take it almost for granted but 8 teams last week went on 12 dangerous missions delivering aid into the liberated territories and zones of active bombardment.

Despite these difficulties and ongoing bombings that happen almost on schedule, our volunteers continue to push aid into the areas of desperate need and teams have now shifted to various winterization tasks for fixing up roofs to providing stoves and blankets.

Last weekend it was warm in Kyiv and Dnipro, but rather than taking a stroll through the quiet street, watching the leaves change color, our teams raced against the clock, trying to deliver as much assistance as possible before the onset of winter. These efforts are made difficult by constant power outages and increasingly frequent air raid sirens. Yet in the last week alone our teams distributed aid to more than 20,000 people, many of them in the liberated territories, still in danger from Russia’s shelling. We continue to admire the unceasing creativity of their efforts and continued generosity of our community in the US and Europe. Though we continue to spend more money than comes in, we still think that it is important to deploy and evacuate as many people as possible now before the winter cold sets in. Thank you for every single donation you’ve made. Please consider switching to the monthly donation option, so that we can plan better for the five difficult months ahead of us.

The week began and ended with massive attacks that hit residential areas and civilian infrastructure in all of the cities where our volunteer teams operate. Despite being rattled by the explosions, our teams either ignored the attacks or jumped right into action with even more fervor.

Seven teams continued to push aid to the occupied territories last week. The refrain there is that people need everything. Volunteer deliveries are a key source of sustenance in those territories. Those territories have been semi destroyed and heat and electricity are not likely to be turned back on before the onset of winter. These heroic efforts became even more complicated after Russia indiscriminately bombed Ukrainian cities on Monday in the worst attack in months.

Olga’s group has provided the chance for roughly 170 students from dozens of villages to resume learning. The children started offline learning this week and, thankfully, so far there have been no air raid sirens. We hope the children can continue learning upstairs. 

People kissed the bread and cried.

Olga Chizhova who spearheaded the effort to repair schools in Chernihiv continued to distribute supplies, delivery of which was sponsored by UTC. School supplies remain a critical need in multiple parts of the country and we continue to look for partners and ways to provide help to the schoolchildren, especially in refugee families in central Ukraine.

For all of us who follow events in Ukraine, it was hard not to feel hopeful last week, not to rejoice seeing the success of the Ukrainian army, nurturing our hope for the future of Ukraine, for victory over the aggressor's armies. But despite this reassuring news, Russian rockets and shells continued to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure, making Ukrainians relying on our help even more vulnerable to diseases, cold and economic instability. We continue to track the situation closely and hope that in the upcoming weeks, our teams will as usual find a way to push help to the liberated territories like they did in the Kyiv region. This however will require additional resources and as Ukraine liberates more area we continue to expect a steady increase in needs on the ground. Meanwhile alongside the drive to victory, other smaller stories continue to emerge from our conversations with our teams.

Timur’s team has braved intense fighting to make it to the villages in the "gray" zone, close to the front lines. Bezryki and Pechenigi were added to our regular distribution points in Tishki and Tsirkunovi. At both locations, 580 packages of aid were distributed, in addition to 300 other packages. Additionally, Timur’s team delivered 100 packages of aid to the children's hospital in the Kharkiv region. Timur’s team completed 10 relatively short-distance evacuations as, with the approaching cold, some residents are giving up on spending the winter at their homes after months of shelling.

Thanks to your generous support of Ukraine TrustChain’s fundraiser for school supplies for first graders, Dina’s nonprofit organization Vilny Liudy – Vilna Krayina was able to purchase enough items to send 229 displaced first graders to school. Below, you can see the distribution of school supplies for some of these children and the eagerness on their faces.

We are writing on Tuesday night, as Ukraine begins the celebration of the 31st Independence Day Festival. Though in the last 31 years, Ukraine has seen many momentous events, this year Independence Day bears unprecedented significance. Every minute of it vibrates with fresh memories of the enormous sacrifices people of Ukraine made defending Ukraine’s independence against a monstrous and tyrannical enemy. For us Ukrainians the Ukrainian citizen volunteers have epitomized the vibrant spirit of the free Ukraine that will come out victorious in this terrible war.

Another project we support through Oleksandr Davydiuk that is near and dear to his heart is a charity “Star of Hope” (Zirka Nadiyi). This organization focuses on working with the children from refugee families in Lutsk. A refugee camp in Lutsk has housed more than 6,000 people over the last 5 months, and Oleksandr Zhalovaga pours his soul into helping kids cope with their difficult situations by providing art therapy, music therapy and field trips for children from the shelter.

Members of Ukraine TrustChain held an art booth to raise funds for Ukraine volunteers at the Evanston, IL, night market. Thank you to Oxana Fursenko for donating such beautiful artwork that UTC gave as gifts for donations as well as to Natasha Burylina who did face painting for kids at the event in support of volunteers in Ukraine.

Andriy and his heroic drivers personally put on the helmets and armor to deliver 1.5 tons of aid to Siversk – a city just miles away from the hottest battle zone of the last few weeks. Coming back from these trips Andriy evacuated 16 people. See the video below that reflects this heroic mission.

What do you want to tell the world about what is happening in Ukraine?

Timur delivers aid to villages on the outskirts of Kharkiv. Other organizations do not enter these danger zones, but people here live under constant shelling.