January 18, 2023
48,620 people evacuated from danger to date
50 people evacuated from danger this week
12 trips into the deoccupied and frontline territories
Hours into the night, as rescue teams and volunteers dug through rubble after Russia launched a boat-sinking missile into a 9-story residential building, UTC volunteers, many of whom are connected personally and deeply to Dnipro, shared messages of dread, exhaustion, grief, and pain. The city announced to residents to bring crowbars to help with the digging. Through pure darkness and silence, videos and photographs revealed a surreal scene of thick smoke in floodlights and rescue workers atop thousands of tons of cement and metal. Our volunteers including Inna, Dina, Karina, and some of Andriy and Oleksandr’s teams rushed to the site, helping with aid distribution, delivering warm drinks to rescue workers, and providing comfort to residents of the building. As Karina put it, there was the “collective breathing of 500 people” – the agony of anticipation when they heard a woman calling for help and rescue workers were unable to reach her. Some of the scariest moments were when pipes, still filled with gas under all of the rubble, would suddenly ignite and explode. In one of the messages that we got that night, our volunteer told us that the rescue crew had 2 ½ floors of rubble left to go.
Many of the people living in this building were teachers and professionals with families. Those from the collapsed structure who were injured in the attacks, we are told, remain in hospitals or rehabilitation clinics. While some of the building is intact, there are almost no windows and much of the entire structure is uninhabitable.
Coincidentally, this weekend also, Inna’s team was on the way with generators provided by Project Kesher to Donetsk and the Kharkiv region to establish invincibility points. But as they were passing through Dnipro, the team pivoted to be able to install two of the generators in the main volunteer tents at the base of the destroyed apartment building. The volunteer tent set up by her team, seen below in the video from her, helped to heat water, warm up rescue workers, help survivors charge phones, receive aid, and help resuscitate workers exposed to toxic smoke from the missile. Our teams spent 3 days and nights at the site of the attack, and are now working to find and provide housing for many who were left without homes. In a crisis of this magnitude, our volunteers remained an essential resource for the community. We are so grateful to our donors for the continued support of our volunteers’ heroic, and selfless efforts.
Ukraine Team Milestones
Dina’s Team — Vilny Lyudi - Vylna Kraina
On January 12, Sergiy Tiora traveled to the Lyman area, delivering potbelly stoves, warm blankets, food, hygiene products, candles and matches.
The usual distribution centers took a week off last week after the holidays. They were still open for people to be able to come and select donated clothing and toys, as well as formula and diapers. Grocery distribution will resume next week.
Ukraine TrustChain continues to help with snacks and art supplies for the art therapy group for displaced children in Kremenchuk.
This past weekend, team in Dnipro was sourcing supplies for distribution of 300 packages in Dnipro and mailing 400 packages to small towns without adequate supplies close to the front lines. Dina was driving home from the office when she saw a blast. She texted us that she saw it and it looked like it was in a residential area. A few minutes later she texted that ambulances and fire trucks were rushing to the site. A few minutes after that she learned from local telegram groups that a missile hit a 9-story apartment building, bringing down an entire section of it.
Karina’s Team — We Save Dnipro
Karina and her husband rushed to the scene of the collapsed building in Dnipro to see how they could help. As we mentioned above, she spent 3 days and nights there, with just short breaks to go home and sleep for a few hours.
On Saturday evening central time, in the middle of the night in Dnipro, she was sending us audio messages and videos from there as rescue workers searched for survivors. In one of the videos, every few seconds rescue workers shout in unison, “Is there anyone alive?” Karina’s messages are pulsating with adrenaline. There is elation in one as someone is found alive, horror and pain in the next one, as a body is pulled out. There are pictures of dogs who help the rescuers in their search.
Karina’s shelter was ready to receive people, but no one came. She said there was a long line of people who showed up offering to take survivors into their homes. There were more people ready to help than those needing shelter.
This week, Karina’s team also evacuated 18 people from Kurakhovo, 21 from Kherson, 11 from Bahmut/Konstantinovka. Currently 89 people live in her shelter.
Oleksandr’s Network
Below, we share some of the efforts of Oleksandr’s network of volunteer teams.
Pavlo V’s volunteers supported people in multiple areas of Ukraine this week:
Pavlo’s volunteers from Dnipro delivered food, wood stoves and stove parts to several locations in the Donetsk region. They brought back some moving stories from these deliveries.
In Kostyantynivka a blast wave from a nearby explosion pushed and injured an elderly woman and destroyed part of her house and stove. When Pavlo’s volunteers gave her a new stove she cried and told them they were angels sent by the Lord. In Slovyansk a family of four (parents and two children) had all gotten sick from living with no heat. They were very grateful to finally get a stove.
In Toretsk, people are in great need of stoves. This long-suffering city has been shelled since 2014. There are constant interruptions with water supply and electricity, and heating is virtually nonexistent. One man walked with a handcart from the outskirts of town, arriving six hours early and waiting for the volunteers, just to make sure he got his stove!
In addition to work in the Donetsk Region, the team delivered bread to homeless shelters in the Dnipropetrovsk Region. Pavlo’s teams have also been involved in aid to victims of the Dnipro rocket strike that destroyed a nine-story residential complex.
Oleksandr S’s team delivered generators to the refugee reception center in the village of Suvid and heating points to the cities of Boyarka and Nizhyn. The team also offered assistance to the victims of the massive rocket attack in the Kyiv Region on December 31 and humanitarian aid to war victims in the Chernihiv Region.
Vladyslav K’s team continues their delivery of drinking water to Mykolaiv with eight trips and 24 tons of water transported this week. The team also assembled and distributed 450 grocery sets of 13.5 kg each, as well as 200 hygiene kits, 900 loaves of bread, fifteen bags of clothes and shoes to the village of Horokhivka in the Mykolaiv Region. Volunteers often have to work using flashlights since there are frequent power outages.
Sandra S’s kitchen in Odesa fed 1,670 people, grateful to serve them in their usual spot at the train station, instead of having to retreat to the bomb shelter. Displaced people looking for a meal have started showing up in the evening as well as at the usual meal time. Yury S, who is usually based in Vinnytsia, will be joining Sandra for a while to help with the heavy workload.
Oksana K with fellow volunteer Valery brought 1.5 tons of humanitarian aid from Lutsk to Dnipro, supplying the Dnipropetrovsk Hospital and the charitable foundation “Step with Hope.” While there, Oksana managed to arrange the delivery of 800 kg of aid from Poland to Lutsk.
Oleksandr Z of “Star of Hope” in Lutsk led art therapy sessions for 35 people at a local sports center using clay painting and pottery. “Star of Hope” also distributed aid to six immigrants and three large families.
Nazarii P brought a mini bus with one ton of canned food, hygiene items, blankets and diapers from Odesa to Kherson. His aid center provided assistance to 600 people and families in Kherson this week.
Our volunteer working in an undisclosed occupied territory distributed 240 food sets of semolina, oatmeal flour, butter, and fruit for the children to local residents. Residents in this area are extremely grateful to the donors who make these deliveries possible. They appreciate that they have not been forgotten.
Inna’s Team - Krok z Nadiyeyu
The aftermath of the missile attack in Dnirpo gave Inna an idea that we hope to implement soon of forming a mobile rescue point that Inna would be able to set up quickly near critical sites where her team is present.
Last week Inna provided help to 8,700 people, an additional 10,000 received bread produced as part of our joint “Bread Project.” 30 tons of aid were delivered.
In particular we delivered 2 tons of aid to 120 people in the Bahmut area, and 150 families in Druzhkovka-Toretsk - also a dangerous frontline area. The team traveled to Kherson delivering a generato, and food packages, and Berislav - perhaps an even more devastated town in the Kherson region. There were 12 more expeditions in the Dnipro region to Pavlograd, Nikopol, and other cities.
Pavel’s Team - Dotyk Serdtsia (Touch of Heart) and Svitanok Mriy (Dawn of Hope)
Last week, Pavel’s team fed 6,430 people in the city of Mykolaiv and the villages between Mykolaiv and Kherson: Balabanovka, Kolarove and Zasillia.
Pavel’s team has been paying special attention to the village of Zasillia that suffered almost complete destruction during the battle for Kherson. Pavel’s team provided 40 families with potbelly stoves and firewood to last through the end of the winter season in mid April. Time and again we see that a focused effort by a volunteer team not only helps families, but revitalizes the village as a whole. When word spreads that there is help available, people begin returning to their land and a community begins the rebuilding process.
240 aid packages were delivered to IDPs in Odesa and 10 tons of aid was delivered to Mykolayiv. In addition to the food packages the team distributed warm clothing, blankets and warm overalls for kids. Last week the team also came together to help repair a house for one of the team members, whose house was damaged by Russian shells.
Kseniia - Livyj Bereh
Last week, Vlad and Ihor the cofounders of Livyj Bereh, traveled extensively across the Kharkiv, Mykolayiv and Kherson regions, identifying new places where they can rebuild roofs and set up invincibility points.
In the meantime, Kseniia's team reported 6 more roofs fully repaired in the Slatyne village, Kharkiv region. For one of the houses, the team also restored a wall. Previously, a large family lived in this house. Russian shells destroyed a wall and the grandmother, her daughters, and grandchildren had to move to another place, while only the grandfather stayed back. Kseniia's team decided to help. They restored the wall and covered the roof. The wall structure is now built, insulated, and covered from the outside with OSB sheets; it will soon be ready for the entire family to come back.
The Kherson team we support through Kseniia delivered aid to 545 families in six deoccupied villages of the Kherson region: Muzykivka, Vysuntsi, Shkurynivka, Zagorianivka, Vesele. Medicine was delivered to Kozats’ke village.
Andriy’s Team - BF Pomahaem
Last week, UTC and Andriy’s foundation began working on two larger projects. We will be supporting a series of trips by Andriy’s team, helping with transportation costs and purchasing candles and hygienic items in addition to the aid Andriy already assembled. Three of these trips already happened last week bringing in more than 30 tons of aid to three communities in the Dnipro region. Andriy is planning to deliver help to 3,300 families in the coming weeks. Additionally we are planning to help with the distribution of 9,000 packages to identified single refugees and single parents in need.
Andriy’s shelter continues to house 101 people providing not only a place to sleep, but also three meals a day, laundry, psychological assistance and social support. In the aftermath of Dnipro bombing, Andriy’s shelter opened its doors to the survivors of the attack, offering to pay for taxis to the shelter too.
Timur’s Team - Timur and Team
The team has been hard at work planning out the deliveries to deoccupied areas, procuring aid to make hundreds of aid packages. However, intense military fighting caused them to pivot this week. They still managed to deliver 200 food packages to Cherkasy Tishki and 300 food packages to Severnaya Saltovka.
Tetiana’s Team - Dopomoha Poruch
This week Tetiana’s team distributed aid in Smila itself. Overall, the amount of help available in Smila is dwindling. More refugees reach out to Tetiana’s team for aid. 140 families received aid this week. At one point, Tetiana ended up giving food from her own home to an 82-year-old resident who got lost and came too late for the aid distribution.
Tetiana’s team also visited an orphanage in Mikhailivka and brought presents for the holiday celebrations that were delayed by a quarantine. 100 kids received presents. The team brought dumplings for which the children had been waiting.
A week ago Tetiana’s rickety old van, essential to aid distributions, suffered engine failure. Ukraine TrustChain sponsored the purchase of a used van so that Tetian would be able to continue supporting Ukrainians.
Alena’s Team — Virgo Volunteer Center
Alena has identified five new locations in the Kherson region where invincibility points could be established. As we explained last week, the process of selecting the right location for installing generators is complex – it requires volunteers who can travel into the destroyed village and find the right contact that will keep the generator working and accessible to the people in the village. The generators will be installed in the two coming weeks.
Marina’s Team - Give Good Ukraine
Marina's team distributed 2 tons of aid, such as sets of food, hygiene products, household cleaning products, and first-aid kits in the Zhovti Vody territorial community.
They also continued to deliver medical supplies to the primary health care center Piatykhatky, in the Dnipro district, where another hundred families in need also received aid from Marina's team this week.
Natalia’s Team — Vysnia Volunteer Center
Natalia is completing preparations for the next trip into the deoccupied territories this week, which we hope to report in the upcoming newsletter.
Aid Requests
Katerina’s family, including her husband, mother and grandmother, fled Donetsk when the war in the East started in 2014 and have since been living in Dnipro. It’s been hard for them to make ends meet. Katerina’s husband is the only one who has a job and the family isn’t eligible for support services for internally displaced persons since they had moved to Dnipro prior to February 24th. In addition to her family, Katerina has been taking care of a number of abandoned dogs and cats in her neighborhood. She reached out to us and we helped her purchase a blanket, a pillow and some pet food. Here she is with some of her animals who are lucky to have her.
How to Help
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