Supporting Ukraine: See How Communities Across U.S. Have Helped

ACROSS AMERICA — Not since the unprovoked attack of 9/11 has the world stood so solidly with another country as it is with Ukraine in what’s increasingly known as “Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war” against the people of the sovereign Eastern European nation.

Putin is engaging in 20th century warfare in the 21st century digital information age, where just a swipe away are haunting images such as those of a bombed maternity hospital, hastily prepared mass graves and, among hordes of refugees, a child crossing the border alone, his parents’ contact information written on his arm with a Sharpie.

Galvanized by these images — and inspired by the mettle shown by Ukrainian military personnel and citizen soldiers far out matched by Putin’s army — Americans are marching, rallying, supplying and finding solidarity by literally breaking bread with people they’ve never met.

Few felt more strongly than the Rev. Ivan Mazuryk of the Protection of the Blessed Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who delivered the first part of his speech at a large rally in Fairfield in the Ukrainian language.

“We feel awful, we feel sad, but at the same time, we feel strong,” he said. “I know my people. They will not back down.” Patch’s Anna Bybee-Schier has more.

Boots On The Ground

For Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, Mayor Paul Kanitra, the war is personal. Half his family are Polish and Slovakian. On the mayor’s Facebook page, he wrote he felt “compelled to do something watching this insane horror unfold.”

Kanitra, who has done humanitarian work in the area before, headed to Poland — like Ukraine, a shining example to the world with its outsized response to catastrophe — to help the millions of Ukrainians chased from their country by Putin’s bombs.

Kanitra and his best friend, Greg, were in the thick of encounter after encounter that kicked them square in the gut. One of the first was with a bus full of Ukrainian children, already orphaned, headed to other orphanages throughout Poland.

“To say we were choked up would be an understatement. It was almost impossible to keep from tearing up,” Kanitra wrote in a post on Facebook. “I offered them literally all of the money in my wallet, but in the end they only would take the equivalent of a few hundred dollars. ...” Patch’s Karen Wall has more.

In other cases, Americans are putting themselves in the middle of the conflict.

“No child should be living like this,” Ulana Nosal said in a video from Poland, her voice breaking as she described the toll on Ukrainian children quickly spirited to safety from the Russian assault.

She and Terry Reid, another Massachusetts woman, traveled to Poland to deliver six duffle bags filled with medical supplies to refugees on behalf of Sunflower of Peace, a nonprofit providing humanitarian aid in Ukraine that takes its name from the country’s national flower. “This is unimaginable,” Reid said. Patch’s Haley Cornell has more.

Project Dynamo, a nonprofit group in Tampa, Florida, has boots on the ground in Ukraine, where volunteers whisked three premature babies to safety in Poland from a hospital in Kyiv amid heavy shelling and explosions nearby.

"The U.S. government made it clear there would be no help for American citizens stuck in the region. When we heard that, we knew it was time for us to begin planning Dynamo-led evacuations," Matthew Herring, co-founder of the group of decorated war veterans and active military personnel formed last year to assist people out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. "As always, our mission is to never leave an American behind." Patch’s D’Ann Lawrence White has more. And here’s another story on Project Dynamo.

Andrew Smeaton, Boston-based DataRobot’s chief information security officer, quickly hopped an overseas flight to shuttle an employee and his family to Poland from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and also a key outpost for DataRobot with 250 employees. In Poland, he sold his watch for a beat-up car held together with duct tape and began his rescue effort. Patch’s Haley Cornell has more.

‘Food Is How You Show Love’

Borscht — a colorful beet soup with potatoes, cabbage and, Ukrainians like to say, “anything that grows” — is the most Ukrainian of Ukrainian dishes.

“Food is how you show love,” said Radhika Murari, who helped two Ukrainian sisters promote their Saturday morning borscht-making class in Reston, Virginia. As a result, Cook for Ukraine became one of the top fundraisers on the World Central Kitchen’s Ukrainian relief efforts.

Murari figured she might be able to raise a couple of thousand bucks in humanitarian aid when she told a few friends about her idea. As of Friday morning, donations had topped $175,000. Patch’s Michael O’Connell has more.

People across Vienna, Virginia, turned on their ovens to supply the Local Bakers Bake for Ukraine fundraiser that sold out in about seven minutes and has a wait list of about 200 people who want in on the goodies.

One of the participating bakers, Slava Dutchak, who immigrated to the United States eight years ago and is also involved in the World Central Kitchen effort, told Patch the fundraiser gave local residents “an outlet to help Ukraine.”

“I felt powerless in the first few days” after Russia invaded Ukraine, but has found purpose in the humanitarian aid she and others are stirring up in their kitchens. Now, she said, “I feel able to do something.” Patch’s Emily Leayman has more.

The World Central Kitchen is the chosen charity of two restaurnats on opposite sides of New Hampshire. Both Greenleaf in Milford and Vida Cantina in Portsmouth will be donating a portion of their sales to the charity's Ukrainian relief effort. Patch's Tony Schinella has more.

When Putin’s bombs started falling on Ukraine just over two weeks ago, only one comfort food would do for many in New York City’s East Village: pierogies from Veselka, an iconic Ukrainian restaurant carved from a small candy store into a nearly 70-year-old institution.

The line for the traditional dumplings stretched out the door and down the block the day after the Russian invasion. Restaurant owner Jason Birchard told Patch he is grateful for the loyal support of his neighbors during a “difficult” and “heavy-hearted time.”

Many of his staff have family in Ukraine.

“The mood with my staff and me is that this is totally disheartening, sad, disgusting and frightening, all wrapped up in one,” Birchard said. “We're all in a state of shock.” Patch’s Gus Saltonstall has more.

‘What If It Were Me And My Children?’

In many neighborhoods all across America are foot soldiers who, compelled to do more than helplessly wring their hands, are fighting alongside Ukrainians in their unwanted war with fundraisers, supply drives and in other helpful ways.

Masha Dumanis and her husband, Daniel, of Natick, Massachusetts, are tied to Ukraine by blood. Masha was born in Moscow before the breakup of the Soviet Union, and was a baby when her parents, persecuted as Jews, fled to the United States. Daniel was born in the United States, but his ancestors are Ukrainian.

“Like anyone, it's really hard to feel like you're doing nothing," Dumanis told Patch. "With some little twist of fate with my family, I could place myself there. What if it were me and my children running to a bomb shelter? For me, it's really difficult to process."

The couple opened their garage on a recent weekend and collected about 1,500 pounds worth of items — such as gauze pads and antibacterial ointments, clothing and hygiene products — along with $5,000 in cash. Patch’s Mary Ellen Gambon has more.

Alona Paladi wasn't expecting the answer she got after reaching out to Melrose, Massachusetts, Mayor Paul Brodeur after he changed his photo to two Ukrainian children saluting troops. For the mayor, it was a small show of solidarity with the besieged nation — a place Paladi called home before moving to America eight years ago. Her hope was to see if her new home could help rally support for her old one.

Whether it was the dozens of people bringing in medical supplies, or the one woman who showed up with $3,000 worth in her car, or the YMCA dropping off 30,000 gloves, or MelroseWakefield Hospital giving boxes of material, it's safe to say the call was answered.

"This is a great thing to do and something that we can all kind of rally around," Brodeur said. "There's been a lot of contentious stuff. This is not that. This is something that everyone can get. Anyone who's got kids, anyone who's got a service member in their family, they can all get this, they can all wrap their heads around it." Patch's Mike Carraggi has more.

Peter Kucher, the pastor at Christian Worship Center in Downers Grove, Illinois, figured the money he started wiring to Ukraine to help refugees was just a drop in the bucket compared to what was needed. But his congregation kicked in $32,000, enough to buy two minivans that can be used to shuttle Ukrainians in the war zones to safety. Patch’s Jeff Arnold has more.

"What we're trying to do is simply save lives of those who are putting themselves in harm's way," said Paul Gavrilyuk, a University of St. Thomas professor who is working with Minneapolis' Holy Trinity Orthodox Church to send first aid and ambulances to his homeland in Ukraine. "People back in Ukraine receive them as if this was literally help from God, because it could be life-saving," Gavrilyuk told Patch. "It's simply the difference between life and death. Patch's Jason Addy has more.

Even the sound of planes flying in and out of the Milwaukee airport reminds Solomiya Kavyuk of what’s at stake for family members in Ukraine crowded in bomb shelters to escape Russian aggression. She’s designing and selling T-shirts for humanitarian aid. “If Russia stops fighting there will be no war,” read the shirts showing a map of Ukraine, colored blue and yellow like the country’s flag. “If Ukraine stops fighting there will be no Ukraine.” Patch’s John Quinnies has more.

Kids are having grown-up thoughts, too.

It so happens the middle school students at the Waterfront Montessori School in New Jersey are studying the Russian Revolution. Class discussion naturally turned to the invasion, and the students sent a clear message they were desperate to help the people of Ukraine, especially the kids their own age. They weren’t sure how until Sophie Oquendo, a shy, soft-spoken 13-year-old raised her hand. What about a supply drive? Within a day, they had collected hundreds of donations of diapers, baby formula, children’s books and clothing, and other items Ukrainian refugees need. Patch’s Carly Baldwin has more.

In McLean, Virginia, art teacher Pamela Saunders held an online art class that raised $1,000 for Sunflower of Peace. Using watercolors, the children painted sunflowers. “It’s such a symbol of solidarity,” Saunders told Patch. “That’s kind of what we were hoping for … solidarity and empathy in the community.” Patch’s Emily Leayman has more.

‘How Can Anyone Not Be inspired?’

Here’s another important piece of symbolism:

The Ukrainian owners of a ballet school in Bradenton, Florida, stripped “Russia” from its name — on Feb. 24, the first day of the war, the moment they walked in the door. It was their own version of the profane epithet Ukrainians have hurled in the faces of an invasion many around the world think is profane in and of itself.

Husband and wife Sergiy Mykhaylov and Darya Fedotova met as students in the late 1980s at Kyiv Choreographic College, where they learned the methods of Russian ballet dancer Agrippina Vaganova, which they’ll continue to teach. “We just cannot have the name,” Fedotova said.

"It's hard to watch and hard to see the bombs and everything that they're doing to the apartments and the people there," she said. "All of these bombs with kids and women. They just keep bombing." Patch’s Tiffany Razzano has more.

In Hoboken, New Jersey, Sharon Florio is inviting graffiti on the brick walls of her vintage shop. It seemed to her that people were walking around oblivious to what was happening. “How can anyone not be inspired by the Ukrainian people's bravery?" So she stirred the pot, putting a bucket of chalk and a sign inviting people to show their support on her walls. They did that and more. Patch’s Caren Lissner has more.

Elsewhere in New Jersey, in Montclair, people are plenty fired up.

Activists there want people to know a war like this never has just one tentacle, and the United States has some reckoning to do. Since Russia’s first strike on Ukraine on Feb. 24, “the U.S. has clearly blustered forward trying to encourage the idea of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which would provide another launchpad for long-range missiles, including nuclear, near Russia's border," NJAntiWarAgenda’s Bob Witanek said, comparing the situation to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Patch’s Eric Kiefer has more.

Hearts Across The Ocean

The uncertainty is excruciating for Ukrainians who have made the United States their homes or have families in Ukraine.

More than 8,000 miles away from North Shore, Illinois, the war rages on in Ukraine, where the lives on the line include Matt Basinger’s brother-in-law and son.

Volodymyr Boikov and his 20-year-old son, Vlad, remained in the country to fight alongside other adult Ukrainian men 60 and younger, while Basinger’s sister, Natalia, and the couple’s younger son, Artem, 8, have fled to Poland.

“They are currently in Poland, with only the clothes on their backs. We are raising money to help with their living expenses, including housing, food, clothing, and other necessities needed to start a new life," Basinger said. "They are exhausted, scared, traumatized by war and now separated from their immediate family.” Patch’s Eric DeGrechie has more.

Elona Krasatvtseva, who organized a rally in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the invasion, spent the first 10 years of her life in Kyiv and went to college in Moscow. Her sympathies are squarely with the people of Russia, but not their leader.

“I am definitely shocked about what's going on," Krasatvtseva told Patch. "I feel this aggression needs to be stopped. I lived in Ukraine and in Russia for so many years, and from the inside, I know that most of the Russian people do not support this aggression. But I also know that anyone who speaks against what's going on is taken to prison and is tortured." Patch’s Tiffany Razzano has more.

In Ames, Iowa, Irina Bassis, who emigrated from Ukraine in the 1990s just as the country was gaining independence, swells with pride as Ukrainians face the enemy head on, showing the world their independence is worth defending.

"This has changed my life," Bassis told Patch. “I have never been this pro-Ukrainian. I feel I need to do something for [my daughter] Anastasia and myself. This has changed my perception of my country.

"I am so proud of the determination of Ukrainians. What Putin has done is, he united Ukraine, no matter the differences." Patch’s Beth Dalbey has more.

One of the best ways to help people in Ukraine is with cash support to charities already doing work in the country. This list is a good start.