We watch Ukraine's successgul defensive operations and its strikes against Russian infrastructure with pride and hope. Yet this hope carries a price. As the Russian leadership grows more desperate, it turns its pain and frustration on the civilian population of Ukraine. These are precisely the people we work to help.

The Russian campaign of terror continued and escalated, with another record-setting drone and rocket attack on Kyiv and Dnipro. This is a cruel and desperate response to the increasingly effective actions of the Ukrainian military, which in the last two weeks has mostly paralyzed Russian logistics in the occupied territories and inflicted serious damage to Russia’s oil refineries and storage facilities.

In its largest attack to date on Kyiv and Dnipro over the weekend, Russia hit residential buildings, museums, and schools. Yet, if the intent was to break Ukrainian resolve, the result was the opposite.

Russia launched a particularly vicious attack on Kyiv and Dnipro. Inna’s team was there ho help the survivors. Plus, updates on the agricultural project and evacuations.

Last week, Russia marked Victory Day with its customary pageantry — parades celebrating the World War II defeat over the Nazis, which nowadays it invokes to justify a genocidal war against the Ukrainian people. When the celebrations ended, Russia resumed its bombardments, hitting Mykolaivka - a town our teams have been steadily evacuating over the past several weeks. 

This week we bring you two evacuation stories.

We report on the resolutions of the the Ukraine Action Summit, tell a story of a woman trying to survive in the Sumy Region, and pass on gratitude for seeds from one of this year’s recipients.

Massive attacks on Dnipro; the situation in Nova Osokorivka, and the importance of porridge.

This week: Russia breaks Easter truce, a narrow escape from Mykolaivka, and thank you’s from recepients of the agricultural project.

Our volunteers in Nikopol’ and Kherson are working under harrowing conditions due to increased Russian drone attacks. Rumor has it that Russia’s drone units have received reinforcements. One artillery shell blew out windows in the school building where the Kherson volunteers store aid and repair generators.

We would like to celebrate a dramatic surge in successful evacuations last week: our teams recorded 90 evacuations, more than half of them from deoccupied areas near Kup’yans’k.

For the fourth consecutive year, Ukraine TrustChain has coordinated the distribution of heating fuel to families across the war-affected regions of Ukraine. This year's effort reached 7,880 households across 66 locations in seven regions — Kharkiv, Ukrainian-held Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv — delivering approximately 1,580 tons of fuel briquettes and 4,100 cubic meters of firewood.

Fuel prices have driven up the price of bread delivered by Inna Kampen’s team. Also, UTC supporter Todd Kolod completes a tour with several UTC Ukrainian volunteer teams.

This month we mark four years since Ukraine TrustChain was established. It is an important moment for our organization, but also a difficult one. When we began this work, we hoped our role would be temporary. Sadly, four years later, the war in Ukraine continues.

In the midst of continuing harsh weather and Russian shelling, Sandra's Odesa-based team has been struggling to feed residents who have come to rely on the kitchen for much-needed nourishment. Also, Kherson’s expanding frontline and a touching evacuation story.

February 24th - will always be a special day in our lives. On this day, Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and for all those who still write and read this newsletter - life was divided into the period before and after.

Ukraine is losing Lyman, it seems. We’ve been able to witness it first-hand as this Donbas town has been the focus for Natalia’s team in the last year. Methodically, street by street Natalia was able to deliver aid there until last fall. At some point she was no longer able to deliver the aid into the city herself and was forced to leave it at a drop-off point, from where this aid was delivered further either using military armored vehicles or local activists.

The Ukrainian team received a standing ovation from thousands of spectators at the opening ceremonies of the 2026 Olympic Games. To date, our Ukrainian teams have evacuated over 70,000 people from front line areas. If you have trouble imagining that number, think about the San Siro stadium in Milan, which holds a little over 75,000 people. Watch the opening ceremony photos and videos and imagine every person in that audience as a refugee who had to flee their home, leaving everything behind.

In Tarasivka, the war reached Svitlana through her neighbor’s roof. A direct drone strike killed the entire family next door—people who were bedbound and unable to flee. Where the family home once stood, there is now only a crater.

US residents dealing with winter storms can only try to imagine what it’s like to face this type of weather with no power, electricity, or running water, and under relentless Russian bombing. This week we read some stories of survival.