Close to home
Normalcy is eluded in Ukraine even far from the battlefield
This is United Ukraine co-founder with your end-of-weekend update. Since the Friday update we’ve sent out an additional $3,762.09 to families and support in Ukraine. I've just left Poland today. It was good to be there. Poland is a beautiful place full of friendly people and I have a number of Ukranian friends that are now refugees there. I even met one friend who still lives Kyiv that I ran into in Poland not as a refugee but just as a vacationer. Most of them are on the edge of hope and despair. One friend wasn't sure whether to renew the lease that she'd signed in Warsaw. Should she be looking to establish a life outside in Ukraine or could she and her 12 year old daughter go back soon. It's a position that has millions of people with their lives in stasis. Unable to plan, unable to make the normal sorts of decisions and make the everyday commitments you need to make your life move forward.
A lot of Ukrainians were also curious about my plans. They suggested that Kyiv was safer now and that if I was willing to ignore the frequent air-raid sirens and be willing to take an all-day train to get to the nearest working airport, I could live a somewhat normal life there.
And then yesterday there were rocket strikes all over Ukraine. One of them hit a (thankfully empty) kindergarten. It was in the news, but of course, my friends were living through it. It’s a different way to process the events hearing from friends about how they stayed up all night due to air raid sirens. A Ukrainian friend wrote on Facebook about her newfound use of the English phrase “shared reality.” Her life now had become so distant from what she imagined it to be before that she felt the tangible difference between what she could communicate to people living through the war as opposed to those outside of it.
So even now, after 3 months of war there’s a continued need for financial support to help people in all sorts of impossible and complicated situations.
Via Debit, Credit, or Paypal: At this link
Via Venmo: @UnitedUkraine (under the business tab)
Our Website: http://www.united-ukraine.org
And we accept checks via mail at:
225 Bright Poppy
Irvine, CA 92618
Thank you so much.
This is a Greek Orthodox family that lived in a village on the paths tanks took from Russia to Mariupol. We were able help them get to Germany, where they were taken in by members of their religious community.
This mother of two lives on the front lines. Some days it is possible to work, somedays it not.
This is Olya, Vitaly, and their son Kirill from Mariupol. Their home was hit by a rocket and burned to the ground. We’re supporting them while they are in Poland and looking for work locally.
Thank you for your support. We’ve been methodically finding people outside of traditional networks of support and bridging them to where they can be helped by other resources. To this end we’ve started meeting with other NGOs and can hopefully expand our network to support even more.
Zelenskyy and Dystopia
What happened today during the meeting with the Ukraine President should profoundly alarm all Americans. The President of Ukraine, who is literally fighting for the preservation of his country and people, was publicly berated by Trump and Vance when he chose to speak of the issues. Our American leader then acted to mute, cut off and subsequently told the Ukrainian Leader to leave the White House.
We need to remember that in 1991 (circa), the country of Ukraine chose freedom and freely separated as a democracy when the Soviet Union collapsed. We need to remember that the SU collapsed under the weight of own its failing economy and the desire for freedom from a oppressive political system of authoritarianism, dictatorship and communism.
Understandably, the Ukraine people do not want to return to a Soviet style regime or dictatorship. We must remember that, America has always been there to help and nurture a fledgling democracy and promote liberty, prosperity and freedom.
The truth is Russia invaded Ukraine and the conflict was started by Putin. Zelenskyy was elected by 73% of his people. Current poling in Ukraine supports President Zelensky and wants the land Russia has occupied returned.
Our military support is vital to their survival. If American support is withdrawn, they will martyr themselves to demonstrate the cause of freedom to the world.
The behavior by the US PRESIDENT is symptomatic of a greater issue here at home. When and what will it take before we are awaken to the threat that is now tearing down our constitutional democracy? What is going on in America today is truly dystopian. This is not normal in any way. Not normal in terms of how we treat our allies, not normal in the way diplomacy works and not normal in terms of decency and respect for others. America has never turned our back on our allies.
America has never embraced our enemies. Yes we want peace, but peace that is noble and sustaining of our legacy, sustaining of our values and does not embrace dictators, thugs and brutal regimes.