I received this by email today from Ukrainian Freedom Fund.
Dear UFF Supporters,
Many of you have sent notes wishing safety for the fiancée of our communications director’s, Victoria Nazarenko; he has been on the front with the infantry. Victoria has been too strong to tell the open community, but Eugene was wounded 3 weeks ago. He should recover, but still has a large shell splinter which had chemicals infecting him.
Twelve others in his unit were killed that same day.
This is what a cease-fire means to the Russians.
Putin remains aggressive in the Baltics and his robust intelligence (and media) forces are undoubtedly manipulating ISIS, Middle East and Ebola events to take western attention away from Ukraine: don’t let the absence of western media coverage in Donbas fool anyone into complacency. He requires a war to justify his faltering economy: he failed in reforms – and now needs a scapegoat to retain power. We expect him to continue attacking – perhaps with occasional pause – but always in search of a new enemy.
Meanwhile, Victoria is working harder than ever. A Ukrainian Patriot with a mission.
Our soldiers will remain in combat through the winter: Reports indicate Russia has moved over 300 armored vehicles into Ukraine in the last 1-2 weeks and replaced rag-tag mercenaries with professional soldiers. While Ministries say they are providing clothing and equipment, the equipment is old or substandard – and the government still has a long way to go in eradicating corruption. One volunteer, Lada Roslyncky, recently went to the front delivering material and filmed this video one mile from Donetsk airport.
UFF is also working with volunteers to get medical attention to the wounded. We are collecting packages of warm clothes from North America – and if the clothing donations aren’t adequate for soldiers, we are giving them to refugees (over 300,000 now) in the East. And we are coordinating with various commands on other equipment needs.
We are also recently working with other NGOs – both newly formed in Ukraine and older established ones in North America – to help coordinate efforts, ensure greater efficiency in helping the Army and volunteer battalions and to communicate to the rest of the world that Russia remains on the offensive, threatening Ukraine and the West. We will make more announcements about this as we get further along.
Thank you for all your support.
Andrew Bain
UFF co-Founder
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Please donate today. U.S. citizens can make tax-deductible donations via UFF’s partner U.S.-Ukraine Foundation. Just write on the check, or in the note section of the online form, “For UFF”.
Thank you.
Anka in Kyiv 