June 5th, 2025
68,083 people evacuated from danger to date
54 people evacuated from danger this week
43 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
This week, we felt that a brief note from one of our evacuation teams best captures the current situation near the front and serves as the most honest update we can share,
Greetings to you, friends. As always, we are glad to hear from you and are sincerely grateful. I just arrived home after a difficult day. Over the past week, we completed 12 trips and evacuated 54 people. As before, the main evacuation points include the Lyman, Bilyts’ke, Rodyns’ke, Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, Kostyantynivka, Mykolaivka, and Shakhove communities.
The enemy continues to advance toward Druzhkivka, bypassing Kostiantynivka from the West. Every night, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Mykolaivka suffer attacks from FABs, Shaheds, or ballistic missiles. Negotiations continue, but the enemy is clearly aiming to destroy and then seize the Donetsk Region without regard for civilian casualties. We continue our mission. Once again, sincere thanks to the concerned citizens of the U.S. and for you, our true friends, for your support and the efforts of your team in defending Ukraine’s interests.
Stories
Delivering Seeds to Nikopol
Karina’s team traveled to Nikopol to deliver aid and long-awaited seeds to people for planting vegetables in their gardens. As usual, the volunteers shared some words of gratitude from the locals they served. One quote stood out particularly as a testament to the Ukrainian strength of spirit and connection to the land. Vasyl says: "We even plant in craters. The land is ours, and it bears fruit."
Donbas Help
Every week, two volunteers from Inna’s team make their way to key towns in the Donetsk Region. Previously, this included Kostyantynivka, but in the last several weeks Kostyantynivka has become an active combat zone, not accessible to civilian volunteers. The usually upbeat leaders of the team described their last trip as “difficult:”
We went out to the site of Friday's strikes. The private homes there were damaged. It started raining, so the roof repair work stopped. Everything was leaking. It was terrible. How are people supposed to spend the night? We helped with plastic sheeting, bread, and food.
[One local woman,] Valentina, miraculously survived, along with her family. The family had decided to move from the main house to the summer kitchen for the warm season. This move saved them. In the evening there was a powerful explosion behind the fence. The house took the main impact. Half the roof was blown off and all the windows were blown out. Valentina was very grateful for help with plastic sheeting and bread and for the care and warmth.
Basic Hygiene Supplies for Lyman
Natasha made her ninth trip to Lyman. We love getting Natasha’s voice memos describing her trips. This trip was relatively safe and quiet. However, the bridge the team was supposed to cross on the way to Lyman was destroyed a few days prior to her trip. Natalia had to spend the night in Kramatorsk awaiting the go-ahead to approach Lyman. As always everywhere in the Donbas, you could see signs of recent and ongoing destruction, but during the distribution there were no explosions.
“People were especially grateful for the toilet paper,” said Natasha. “Men asked about shaving supplies, but unfortunately this was not an item that had been requested by the local activists.”
As we’ve explained before, Natalya focuses on supplying Lyman residents with hygienic products. The local government is able to ensure the provision of basic food, but items like soap, toilet paper, and shampoos are not available. We are proud that, thanks to the donations of our community, Natalya is able to cover this very humble, but essential need of a battered frontline town.
Help in Occupied Territories
86 people received help in three occupied towns. Somewhat unusually, the following note was included with the latest report:
Thank you for your support! From the bottom of our hearts, we want to express our sincere gratitude for your help. My mother and I live in a territory where hostilities are taking place. We are both people with disabilities. In these conditions of constant danger and instability, your help is more than just a grocery set — it also represents real support, hope and care.
Each package of food gives us substantial help with nutrition and a warm reminder that we are not alone. Your participation in our lives gives us strength, faith, and the feeling that somewhere nearby there are people with kind hearts. Thank you for everything you do. It really helps.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
12 trips, with 54 people evacuated from the Lyman, Bilyts’ke, Rodyns’ke, Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, Kostyantynivka, Mykolaivka, and Shakhove areas.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
In the final stages of the agricultural project, 1,900 families received seedlings last week in 6 cities in the Dnipro (near Nikopol) and Kharkiv regions.
22.3 tons of aid delivered to 8,250 people.
6,600 people received bread.
Aid distributed in 43 towns, 13 of them in high-risk frontline areas.
Kherson efforts:
Clean up of 2 large basements.
Delivered fuel for the generator supporting 4 families in the “red” zone.
Refueled 6 generators.
Brought 20 sacks of flour for the local volunteer bakery.
Organized gifts and puppet show for kids of Velyka Oleksandrivka, Kherson Region.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Oleksandr S, Boyarka. Received 20 tons of aid from Samaritan’s Purse. Delivered aid to villages near Chernihiv and Cherkasy. 2.5 tons of aid was split into 200 packages to be delivered to Shostka - a frontline village near Sumy. Delivered 1.25 tons to Kharkiv, 1.5 to Zaporizhzhia, and 2 tons to Novhorod Siversky, near Chernihiv.
Vladyslav K., Mykolaiv. 35 tons of water delivered to Mykolaiv residents. 7 tons to Kherson.
WeCare Centers, Lviv. 5 tons of baby food was delivered to 7 citities around Ukraine, including Kharkiv and Druzhkivka.
Vitaliy Z, Kharkiv. Delivered 350 packages to Oleksijevo-Druzhkivka, Donetsk Region, weighing about 4 tons. Provided uniforms to local utility workers in Kharkiv. Delivered 500 loaves of bread to Kramatorsk.
Serhiy A., Kharkiv. Providing help to the visually impaired. In May he provided 839 packages, weighing a total of 3.8 tons. 2 deliveries were to higher risk locations — Marhanets’ and Kramatorsk.
Oleksandr D, Lutsk. Vadym T traveled abroad to pick up 9 tons of soup cubes.
Oleksandr Z., Lutsk, Provided art classes to 136 children. Provided bread and food packages to 450 IDPs based in Lutsk. Facilitated 80 medical and rehabilitative procedures for 36 IDP children with disabilities, originally from the Kherson Region. Assisted in production of prosthetics and rehabilitation for 23 people.
In total, Oleksandr D’s network distributed: 47 tons of aid, 42 tons of water. 2,165+ people received aid.
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
1 roof restored in Lezhyne, Zaporizhzhia Region.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
100 people in the shelter.
Delivered 247 packages of aid and 193 sets of packaged seeds for planting to Nikopol.
Tetiana’s Team – Dopomoha poruch (Help Is Near)
Distributed 150 aid packages in the village of Krutoyarivka, on the border of Donetsk and Dnipro regions.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Delivered 257 hygienic packages to 3 locations in Lyman.
Tetiana, in Kryvyi Rih, is preparing for her trip into the Kherson Region later this week.
Timur’s Team – Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
The team distributed aid packages to 317 families in Kharkiv.
Special deliveries to 34 disabled elderly and 8 large families.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams – Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
250 packages delivered to Prybuz’ke.
70 packages delivered to Myrne.
Organized an event for children in Pravdyne. 110 children came to this holiday.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
24.5 tons of water delivered to Nikopol.
150 packages delivered to Vasylkivka, near Synel’nykove.
21 packages delivered to Synychene and Dovhen’ke, in the Kharkiv Region.
Marina’s Team – Daruy dobrо Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages were distributed to elderly and disabled people in Zhovti Vody.
Dina’s Team — Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 450 packages of food/hygiene aid in Kremenchuk, Poltava, Kanev, and Krasnokutsk.
Served 1,620 meals in the Kharkiv soup kitchen.
Distributed 800 packages of food aid to internally displaced people from Vovchans’k and Kup’yans’k, currently in Kharkiv.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
43 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
This week at the club for children with disabilities kids had culinary and art classes.
Alena’s Team – Diva (Virgo)
Traveled to 3 towns in the Mykolaiv Region, delivering gifts of clothing, shoes, toys, sweets, and yogurt to 370 children.
Liza and Katia continued to help 60 wounded in Odesa hospitals.
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.
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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.