October 16th, 2025
69,308 people evacuated from danger to date
57 people evacuated from danger this week
27 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Last week our Ukrainian teams made 27 trips to high-risk areas. Natasha, who travelled to Lyman, shared that she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to travel in this direction, as the gray zone expands around the city. Similar deterioration continues near Druzhkivka. There is a renewed sense of urgency with our frontline teams, who are attempting to make larger deliveries to the frontline areas before the rains and the disappearance of leaves make these routes even more dangerous.
Stories
Water Is Our Life and Our Health
In a time when many people feel helpless in the face of ongoing war, mounting world problems, and toxic politics, it’s good to remember what a big difference one person can make. Vladyslav K’s team has been delivering drinking water to Mykolaiv since 2022. Despite the city’s promises to restore water service last August, the water coming out of Mykolaiv’s taps remains unsafe due to a lack of treatment facilities. Without the team’s efforts, many residents of the city wouldn’t have access to clean, safe, drinkable water.
Unfortunately, as we’ve reported recently, Vladyslav’s team has lately experienced volunteer shortages. Vladyslav’s son Artur was tragically killed by a Russian drone last year. Another team member left the country. A third has been having trouble with the conscription board, despite being qualified for a medical deferment.
That leaves just Vladyslav himself. While he was gone on a business trip to the US for three weeks, the water deliveries stopped. His absence was most definitely noticed. When Vladyslav returned to his duties, one older woman sought him out to thank him. In a recorded video she says:
Guys, we’re so grateful that you exist. From the time we first learned about you in 2022, you’ve been giving us life. Water is life, and you have given us life. Because of you we’re alive. We always look forward to your delivery. And when you weren’t here for three weeks I for one waited for you, just to say thank you. I use your water for everything – cooking and washing and drinking. It’s very, very good, and we’re very, very thankful. And I would love it if the people involved in all this [aid] didn’t forget the guys who deliver the water to us. Because they bring us health and life. I hope they make it so that these boys can keep coming here regularly. Thank you so much.
Continued Assistance to Druzhkivka
Despite the deadly dangers of Donbas roads, Inna’s team refuses to abandon the people still remaining in Druzhkivka. The curfew there now starts at 2:00 p.m. and lasts until 11:00 a.m. the following morning. This is unavoidable as small Russian reconnaisance groups continue their attempts to infiltrate the city. Furthermore, Druzhkivka and nearby cities are now left without power. In the past Russian forces had abstained from destroying the energy infrastructure in the Donbas, likely hoping for a larger encirclement of the Kramatrosk-Kostyantynivka agglomerations, but in recent weeks their tactics have changed.
Inna’s team delivered bread, food packages, glasses and warm clothing to Druzhkivka. The team also conducted an event for children, who remain in the city because their parents refuse, or are unable to evacuate them.
The volunteers are also continuing evacuations. Last week, Inna’s team member Oleksandr evacuated two families from Druzhkivka. One of the evacuees, Henadiy, had previously taken three weeks to move his possessions by bicycle from Kostyantynivka to Druzhkivka. Leaving at 3:00 a.m. each time to avoid drone attacks he had eventually moved 20 boxes of his belongings to his new residence. Now, forced to evacuate again, Henadiy was grateful that Inna’s team was willing to move him and his possessions to a shelter in Samar, Dnipropetrovsk Region.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
10 trips, evacuating 43 people, 9 of them children.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
20.5 tons of aid delivered to 8,050 people.
6,600 people received bread.
Aid delivered to 12 frontline towns and high-risk locations, and 34 other locations.
Kherson volunteers conducted disinfections in 5 spaces.
Kherson team completed 20 projects, from delivering fuel into Kherson red zones to procuring warm clothing and shoes for a large family.
2 families evacuated from Druzhkivka.
Opened a new center in Shevchenkove, East of Kharkiv, which receives many refugees fleeing from the Kup’yans’k area.
Delivered baby food for 50 children stationed in the Shevchenkove shelter.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Vladyslav K. (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of water to Mykolaiv. Despite promises from the local authorities to provide drinking water by August, 2025, there is still no drinking water in Mykolaiv. Fresh water is mostly flowing from the taps, but it is unsuitable for cooking and is not drinkable, as there are no treatment facilities.
Vitaliy Z. (Kharkiv): delivered 3.5 tons of humanitarian kits, bread, clothes, medicine, and animal feed to Kramatorsk. There are many refugees here who have already been deeply scarred by the war, but feel unable to evacuate to safer areas, because they live on meager pensions and government support for refugees has largely dried up. These people are especially in need of aid. Distributed over 500 loaves of “Victory” bread in the unoccupied village of Morozivka, Izium District.
WeCare Centers (Lviv): delivered a total of 4 tons of rice, yogurt, baby cereals, purees, pasta, and other food products to Dobrotvir, Kremenets’, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Obukhiv, Pereyaslav, Kaniv, and Cherkasy.
Alla A. (Kremenets’): report for 2 weeks. Distributed 60 packages of food and hygiene products in neighboring territorial communities. Offered ongoing classes on social adaptation for people with disabilities.Continued to distribute baby food and rice porridge. Issued 80 grocery certificates to needy segments of the population. Provided assistance with transport for an internally displaced (IDP) family, in which the husband was seriously ill. Continued to distribute clothing and shoes.
Oleksandr D. (Lutsk):volunteer Vadym brought 1 ton of soups from Poland to Lutsk, for Oksana K.’s team.
Oleksandr Z. (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to IDP children and families, large families, children with disabilities, children from military families, orphans, military service members, and amputees in Lutsk, Pidhaitsi, Ostrozhets’, Uizdtsi, and Horodnytsya. 693 children and adults received help, including art therapy classes – some children are preparing for entry to pottery schools and applied arts programs – help with bread and other food, a visit to McDonald’s, a visit to the theater, help with glasses, medical and preventive procedures – including a “medical mobile trailer,” which traveled to remote villages in the Rivne Region to conduct physiotherapeutic procedures for IDPs – and help with the manufacture of prostheses and rehabilitation.
Kseniia’s Team – Livyy bereh (Left Bank)
Darya evacuated 8 people over 2 trips to the Kup’yans’k area.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
Delivered 270 packages of aid to Nikopol’.
There are 117 people in the shelter.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
254 packages delivered to Lyman.
Timur’s Team – Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
Delivered aid packages to 274 families of seniors in Saltivka.
Special deliveries to 241 families with infants and 8 disabled elderly.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams – Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
200 packages delivered to Posad-Pokrovs’ke and Liubomyrivka.
50 families with disabled children received aid through Mykolaiv office.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
A temporary shelter in Volos’ke is housing 120 people daily. There is a renewed and constant stream of refugees, each staying 1-5 days before moving on to a more permanent location.
Other projects are in preparation phases, with deliveries scheduled to resume this week, going in the Kharkiv direction and to the frontline areas of the Dnipropetrovsk Region.
Marina’s Team – Daruy dobro Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages were distributed to internally displaced people in Zhovti Vody.
Dina’s Team – Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 310 packages in Poltava, Kanev, and Kremenchuk.
Served 1,300 meals in the soup kitchen in Kharkiv.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
Food and hygiene kits were distributed to 42 families in Zhytomyr.
Children at the Club for Children with Disabilities took part in psychological relief activities, a field trip to a local park, and art and cooking classes.
Bohdan’s organization organized an event to mark International Senior Citizens Day at the House of Joy. Elderly residents of Zhytomyr also attended acting and vocal classes.
Alena’s Team – Diva (Virgo)
620 families received bread in Odesa.
42 wounded received help in the hospital.
How to Help
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