September 14, 2022
43,583 people evacuated from danger to date
809 people evacuated this week
Ukrainian Offensive in Kharkiv Region
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. Despite this reassuring news, Russian rockets and shells continued to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure, making Ukrainians relying on our help even more vulnerable to diseases, approaching winter cold and economic instability. We know Ukraine will win, but we need to continue to do our part. In the upcoming weeks, in addition to their ongoing work, our teams are planning to push help into the liberated territories like they did earlier this year, when towns around Kyiv were liberated. These efforts will require additional resources, and as Ukraine liberates more areas we expect a steady increase in needs and in the number of people who need help. We are saying this of course to encourage continued donations that have eased off lately perhaps due to an overly optimistic view of the situation on the ground.
Ukraine Team Milestones
We are thrilled to celebrate Karina’s wedding this week. All the while, Karina’s team continued their selfless work - and the main gift for her wedding? Of course a successful donation drive among her friends to buy a new vehicle for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Karina’s shelter continued to house 98 people. Unfortunately, many of the shelters in Dnipro have had to close down. But we are proud we have been able to continue providing shelter to Ukrainian refugees. As many of the people within the shelter have found temporary low-wage jobs, they came together as a community and have started collecting money monthly to cover utilities for the shelter. We hope they will be able to return to their liberated homes, perhaps after the difficult winter.
Karina’s evacuation teams moved 104 people out of the frontline cities in Donetsk region, where Russian forces continued indiscriminate attacks despite their losses on other fronts.
We were planning to connect with Pavel over the weekend, but he couldn’t get online during the brief pause in his driving. His teams continued the evacuation surge. Last week they evacuated 694 people, 224 of them children.
Dina’s volunteers keep distributing aid in Kremenchuk, Krasnokutsk, Poltava, and Kanev. Dina herself is distributing aid in Dnipro and continues sending aid to Kharkiv. In addition, Dina has been pricing some blanket options in preparation for deeper cold. She found a factory in Kharkiv that can sew them for a good price, and Ukraine TrustChain is anticipating doing a fundraiser for this initiative to help with costs. In total last week, Dina’s organization helped 1,672 families.
Inna Kampen’s foundation “Krok z Nadiyeyu” continues its steady massive push across 30 distribution points. Her team provided 31.5 tons of aid to 9,465 people. One of the more notable trips last week was 3 tons of aid delivered to 1,100 people in Nikopol. Nikopol continues to reel from nightly bombardments, coming from across the river, where Russian artillery is hiding in the shadow of the nuclear power plant.
Timur’s team is in Kharkiv, which continued to endure intense shelling by Russian forces throughout last week, but Timur is already planning to push aid into the newly liberated areas. His team prepared quickly for distribution and secure aid drops to villages of Tishki and Pechenihy, which were closed off prior to the recent offensive. They delivered and distributed 400 packages of aid, and are preparing cold weather supplies as well as candles and blankets to areas that have experienced loss of power. They also delivered aid to hundreds of seniors and children around Kharkiv. We cannot yet share more information about the team’s preparations for heading into newly liberated areas, but there is a dire need from people who have been under occupation for months.
Andriy Pinchuk’s organization “Pomahaem” updated the stats on the operations in their warehouse. During August the warehouse helped 2515 families, or 7478 people. The families were refugee families, low-income families with multiple children, and families with kids with special needs for whom the last six months have been especially hard. Besides these distributions Andriy’s organization has cordially agreed to help other Ukraine TrustChain teams on project-by-project basis providing temporary storage accommodations for large deliveries.
Andriy’s shelters continued to house approximately 140-150 people (the numbers change daily). His team evacuated 11 people further west from his shelters, most of them were headed to Austria. Meanwhile, Andriy’s team undertook a major expedition delivering aid— both food and hygienic products as well as diapers and toys— to 700 families in Zaporizhzhya.
Oleksandr Davydiuk continued coordinating multiple teams on diverse humanitarian missions:
Despite substantial logistical challenges, Vladislav’s team in Mykolayiv managed to further increase the amount of drinking water they bring in. Last week they transported 38 tons of drinking water to Mykolayiv residents.
Fearless team of Pavlo Vystratenko traveled to the active war zone around Kramatorsk and Slovyansk delivering 3.5 tons of aid.
Oleksandr Zhalovaga continues his mission in Lutzk helping refugee families and families with children with special needs. He distributed aid to 94 children with disabilities in two locations and brought aid to two additional refugee centers.
We continue to provide aid in the occupied territories. Due to security risks our reporting is only possible once every two weeks. In Nova Kahovka region over the last two weeks, our volunteers have helped 290 families.
Natalia Mitsuta sent a truck of aid to a hospital in the Eastern Ukraine currently treating many wounded soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.She has also starting a campaign collecting warm clothes and blankets in Kyiv. As usual key needs are identified independently and simultaneously by multiple teams.
This week Tetiana continued supporting the most vulnerable population around Smila. She distributed aid in the Korsun-Shevchenkivskiy orphanage for children with severe hearing loss, speech impediments, reduced motor function, and mental impairments. Tetiana and her team brought food, school supplies, toys, games, hygiene products and various arts and craft materials. Volunteers toured the facility and had a chance to see the children and administration so grateful for their aid, and even left with a few gifts of their own!
Kseniia’s Livyj Bereh continued to wrap up roof repairs for multiple families in the village of Zahaltsy.
We are extremely grateful to our community for closing yet another fundraiser that will allow us to transport 500 computers from Czech Republic to Chernihiv schools we helped rebuild and reopen earlier this month.
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.
Spread the word - Share our website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn with your friends, family, and colleagues.
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.