UU Digs In After Two Months of War

Plus: Remembering Mariupol's Children and Fundraising Updates

Good afternoon partners! This is United Ukraine founder Adam with your mid-week update on where your donations have helped the most. From our Sunday update through this morning, we’ve distributed an additional $3,438.23 to community leaders and families inside Ukraine. As always, we are just the conduit for YOUR aid and support. When a building is on fire, it takes water to put it out; an empty hose is just an idle piece of rubber with good intentions. You’re the fuel that keeps us moving forward, which is why we report twice weekly. You deserve to share in the successes of what you’ve helped accomplish, and the impact of that support is often profound.

Just today, you provided crucial support to Tatiana and Yegor’s family (plus their adorable hairless cat Bazhen) in Nikolaev. We got in contact with Tatiana at approximately 2:00 AM local time while she was sheltering in place and unable to sleep due to active shooting on her street.

Yegor is helping repel the Russian invasion on the southern front. Their sons have evacuated with relatives to Moldova. Tatianna and Bazhen are staying at home in an active war zone to care for Tatiana’s mother, who is too ill to leave. Separated from her husband and children, short on resources, and fearing the war, all Tatiana wants is “to hug all of them. I miss them so much. I sit and cry.” Your support supplies her with food and adult diapers for Tatiana’s mother. She writes to all of you, “Thank you for supporting us during such a difficult time. Please pass along my thanks to all the Americans that are helping us. Thank you for your help.”

I promised her that I’d let you know. Ultimately, that’s why we’re here. This is a project about people helping each other because they need it, bridging countries and cultures. Your support matters so much to the people who receive it precisely because it’s voluntary and with no expectation of later reward or return. Real generosity is not just a lifeline of monetary support - it’s a ratification, during a brutal conflict, that strangers can wish you well too. It’s not just financially important; it’s philosophically important. Thank you, truly, for that support.

If you’d like to keep our operations flowing, the best ways to directly support are:

Via Debit, Credit, or Paypal:  At this link
Via Venmo: @UnitedUkraine (under the business tab)
Our Website: http://www.united-ukraine.org

We also accept physical checks via mail at:
225 Bright Poppy
Irvine, CA 92618

And now, more United Ukraine wins from the first half of this week.

Mariupol’s Locals Help Each Other

After weeks of aerial bombings, and reports of residents being forced to dig mass graves in exchange for food and water from Russian soldiers, Mariupol’s residents often don’t know if their loved ones are dead or alive. They remain simply missing, and parents and spouses often refuse to leave town until they have certainty they aren’t leaving someone behind. That’s why this week, Mariupol’s community was hit hard when they discovered a locally famous child actress, Sonya Amelchikova, shown here playing the role of Lucy in the Concept Theater’s production of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” was a victim of Russian bombing.

Sonya was found dead with her mother. Her sister, Elizaveta, also an actress in Mariupol’s theater scene, was also killed and her body found in the cellar of a collapsed nine-story building. Their father and grandfather had refused multiple opportunities to leave until they knew Sonya and Elizaveta’s fate.

United Ukraine doesn’t just read these stories; we find the people affected and directly get them help. Our Mariupol connection, Anastasia, studied painting with Sonya’s grandfather, Yuriy, and put us in touch with him directly over Telegram. While we can never right the wrong that’s been done to this family, your support has secured safe passage for Yuriy and his son to Germany. We’ll keep in contact with this family until they are fully resettled. It’s the least we can do.

Keeping Families Together

These are just a few more of the families your donations have moved to safety in the last few days. Ivan and his wife Irina were married only last year in their home city of Kherson. Their city is now occupied by Russian troops and being forced through a sham “election” to secede from Ukraine and establish an independent republic. Your support funded their escape west. They are now staying with family near Odessa.

You’ve also helped Albert’s family from Mariupol and Yekaterina’s family from Nikolaev to keep roofs over the head and food on their children’s plates.

Despite everything that’s happened, Albert is mostly thankful that his family has stayed together healthy and whole when so many have not. He wants to let you all know that your support is just one of the many blessings God has given his family.

As always, these are just a selection of who you’ve helped - trimmed for space and time. We speak with every family personally and tailor support to their needs.

We take the time to work them as people instead of as statistics. The crime being perpetuated against them only happens because invading soldiers treat them as an abstract cost stripped of their humanity. We remember that they have real lives and real loves. Validating that they matter is just as important as finding them in the first place. That’s what your support does: it gives people the dignity of feeling human again.

Nathan will be back in your inbox on Sunday - with exciting updates on our joint fundraiser with the tango community, and our efforts to provide Ukraine with medical supplies currently completely unavailable Europe. Until then, we’ll keep pushing your donations out to real people on the ground as fast as we can.

As always, 100% of all donations are sent to Ukraine. Nathan and I donate all of our time for nothing and pay all of the transaction costs associated with getting funds into Ukraine - so every penny you give helps a real person within a matter of days. If you want to help, but can’t give financially at this time, simply telling your friends and family what we’re doing does more than you know. Every person we tell about this project understands its power and value, so please spread the word.

With love and sincere thanks for everything you’ve done for us,

Adam