Camouflage nets, aid to the front line and animal rescue: Odesa volunteers never stop helping

Ukrainian defenders need volunteer help no less than they have since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

This was stated at a briefing at the Ukraine-Odesa Media Center by volunteers: Yulia Kryvenko, head of the NGO “With Hope for the Future,” and Yana Titarenko, head of the NGO “Law of Nature” Yana Titarenko on Volunteer Day.

“Now we have a team that behaves like a well-coordinated organism, like a plant or factory: we work in two shifts from morning to evening. Someone else comes in late at night, and someone else takes a ‘homework’ assignment and then brings the finished net in five days,” said Yulia Kryvenko, who has been weaving camouflage for Ukrainian prisoners with a group of girls and women since the beginning of the war in 2014.

She added that volunteers are doing their best to provide for the army and those people who suffer from shelling in the newly occupied territories.

“The bad thing is that people are used to the war and do not pay attention to it. This was the case in 2014, and in 2015 everyone got used to the war and stopped paying attention. And our organization continued to weave nets for the frontline and did not stop. February 24 was not unexpected for us: the war continued, and we did not stop helping. Now we are engaged not only in camouflage products, but also in helping those who need help. Recently, we delivered food packages to 350 residents of the right bank of the Dnipro River. People there suffer the most from the occupiers,” the volunteer said.

Yana Titarenko has been helping the frontline since 2014, and has been rescuing animals since then: she takes them out of the de-occupied territories, often at the request of the soldiers themselves.

“The volunteer movement is evolving along with Ukraine: we respond to the needs of our defenders. I remember 2015, when we visited our marines in the village of Sartana. Back then, our army needed everything from food and warm clothes, and it was only later that the state joined in. Before, it was food, clothes, shoes. Then it was sights and optics. Now it’s drones and anti-drone weapons. The government always lags behind, so we cover the needs. The main thing is not to be interfered with,” the volunteer said.

Yana Titarenko spoke about the problems of animals in the combat zone and after the Russian occupiers blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, how they are being transported and rescued, and also appealed to Ukrainians.

“Despite the burnout and fatigue from the war, come to our Animal Adoption Center at the 411th Battery in Odesa. Help the volunteers. Together we have to win,” the volunteer summarized.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news