Direct Humanitarian Aid to Volunteer in Ukraine

Dear Friends and Colleagues, as the war in Ukraine is approaching the 2-month mark, we are witnessing unfathomable war crimes and atrocities being committed daily, while valiant Ukraine is defending democracy on behalf of the free world. Many of you have been asking how you can help support Ukraine’s humanitarian relief efforts since the beginning of the war, and like many of you we are also exploring all means to be more useful from abroad.

We now have an opportunity to provide direct funds to a civilian volunteer on the ground in Ukraine. She is a very close friend of ours, whom I will call Angel to protect the innocent. Up until the war she ran a thriving paving business, now Angel spends most of her days relocating refuges, cooking for civilian volunteers, and visiting wounded soldiers with injuries ranging from concussions to lost limbs and third-degree burns. As she is making her daily rounds visiting hundreds of injured soldiers, again out of abundance of caution I won’t name the city or the hospital even though this one has been published in the media recently, Angel has very candid conversations with the soldiers.

Here is a snippet of a collections of 7 raw voice messages (which do not pose a risk for inadvertently divulging any sensitive intel) that Angel leaves for my wife daily due to time differences. While I have stitched some of these audio clips together, these are personal and authentic voice messages that Angel has reluctantly allowed us to share to substantiate this post. I have also automatically translated the (ironically) Russian language to English subtitles, as I didn’t want to spend time cleaning it up before posting this urgent message, but it provides the gist of Angel’s first-hand conversations with the wounded soldiers. Again, these messages are unedited and sincere, so you hear the anecdotal stories such as good Samaritans donating night vision binoculars at $2K USD each that were made for recreational hunters, thus rendering them useless for combat operations.

https://www.veed.io/view/fd68a1cc-784e-41b3-b67b-d92f977fc182

The pressing humanitarian needs these soldiers and clinicians describe to Angel are:

Hygiene items: underwear, socks, wet wipes, dental hygiene, etc.

Medical supplies: IVs, syringes, and certain medications

Groceries: food, water, and other nutrition essentials

Surprisingly, Angel is able to purchase these items locally. So, funding is the only barrier to making a meaningful humanitarian impact here and that’s precisely where all donations from this fund will be going. We plan to transfer all funds in chunks of $1K directly to Angel via WesternUnion, which has waived all transaction fees in Ukraine. So the only “administrative” loss of the funding will be 3% GFM fee and whatever is the WesternUnion conversion from USD to local UAH. Being our close friend for over 20 years, we trust Angel to triage the funds based on the hospital’s priorities of the above items.

If you are not comfortable with making a personalized contribution like this, I completely understand and encourage you to continue your contributions to global humanitarian relief organizations like RedCross and UNICEF. Our sister has fled to Romania with her daughter, leaving her husband in Ukraine, and was praising how well the refugee logistics are organized once your cross the Ukrainian border. Our brother and his family are still in Dnepr.

If we have not yet met, here is why the war in Ukraine is personal to us.

I was born in Soviet Kyiv and fled the Communist regime as a child with my family. USA gave us refuge and I am eternally grateful and blessed to be living in the greatest nation on Earth. Today, my birthplace burns and innocent civilians are being slaughtered because a sovereign Ukraine is courageously fighting for its independence from an oppressor that is looking to rebuild the failed USSR.

My wife, who is from Dnepr, is in constant contact with our family and friends in Ukraine. Obviously, the situation is dire and humanitarian crisis is compounding by the minute. Beyond the military conflicts, playgrounds, children’s hospitals, ambulances, and other residential objects are being hit across cities. Air raids are going off several times a day where families bring their food and water to hide in fallout shelters for hours. Hard to believe that I am describing the events in the heart of Europe in 2022.

The entire world, including many Russians, has now seen the bloodthirsty tyrant behind this aggression and has turned its back on him. While to many this war may seem distant, if we do nothing, it will come to our doorstep. Hitler 2.0 is not going to stop at Ukraine and has continued to escalate the nuclear threat. We must unite to help Ukraine defeat a common enemy now or face it one by one alone later. Call your representatives, donate to relief funds, spread the word, join demonstrations, etc. Do whatever you can now, because tomorrow may be too late, to support Ukraine and prevent WW3.

Слава Україні! Героям Слава!