Themes by tag: military
“Darling, I Live on!” is a psychological support project for women who lost their husbands in the war. It operates in Zaporizhia.
In March 2023, activist Yaryna Herashchenko was approached by a family friend who had lost her military husband who asked her for support. Then the women came up with the idea to create the project “Darling, I Live on!” Yaryna’s mother, who is a psychologist, got involved as well.
Over the course of a year, 22 participants joined the project. As part of the initiative, women receive psychological aid and support on their way to recovery. In particular, they take part in various activities: archery, yoga and Thai boxing. Women also participate in field sessions. For example, on the island of Khortytsia, the participants wrote letters to their loved ones, made small paper boats from their messages and sent them down the Dnipro. They also treated each other to their loved ones’ favorite dishes.
The participants are also taking part in two photo projects: “Memory of you” (photos with memorabilia that help the participants tell the stories of their husbands) and “Darling, I Live on!” (“awakening photo shoot”). Group 4 meetings will start in March.
Roman enlisted with the Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps while he was still pursuing his studies in rehabilitation therapy and volunteered for training camps, preparing himself for the rigors of combat. A former student turned soldier and faced his first deployment to the frontlines in 2016. Serving in a reconnaissance battalion in some of the most perilous regions, he experienced the harsh realities of war firsthand. Tragically, in 2019, while near Olenivka in the Donetsk region, Kashpur stepped on a petal mine, resulting in the loss of his leg.
Undeterred by his injury, Kashpur embraced the challenge of prosthetic rehabilitation and soon found himself excelling in the Games of Heroes project, where he emerged victorious twice. Determined to inspire fellow wounded soldiers, he pushed his limits further. In December 2021, Kashpur achieved a remarkable feat by pulling a 16-ton An-26 airplane, moving the giant aircraft 6 meters and 40 centimeters, earning him a place in the National Register of Records of Ukraine.
Despite facing setbacks, including a mismatched prosthesis and the onset of full-scale war, Kashpur continued to persevere. He not only trained newcomers but also actively participated in assaults. His resilience knew no bounds as he set his sights on conquering marathons. In April 2023, Kashpur made his debut in the prestigious 43rd London Marathon. He followed up with appearances in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., and the New York City Marathon in October and November, respectively. Most recently, Kashpur achieved a personal milestone by completing a marathon in Tokyo, Japan, setting a new personal record.
For reference: As Kashpur prepares to return to Ukraine to the Vinnytsia region on March 9, he stands ready to share his remarkable story with journalists, both online and offline, by prior arrangement.
Serhii Shpanko is 46 years old. The man joined the ranks of the Defense Forces back in 2014, when russia first attacked Ukraine. Since then, Serhii served in many positions in the army, until he was discharged and became a teacher at the Military Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. On February 24, 2022, Serhii was in the capital, and together with the cadets he organized the evacuation of the population from Kyiv region, in particular, Bucha and Irpin. At the end of March of the same year, Serhii returned to the Armed Forces, less than a month later, he found himself in the Avdiivka sector. During one of the missions, his car came under enemy fire. Serhii’s next memory after being wounded is the hospital. The soldier received numerous facial injuries, his facial nerve was severed, his ear was torn off and his eye was damaged. Serhii has undergone many surgeries. A team of reconstructive surgeons from Canada, the U.S. and Ukraine decided to restore the functions and symmetry of his face as part of the “Face the Future” international mission. Nowadays Serhii can smile and close his eyelid. The man returned to the Institute, and now teaches cadets to use small arms.
For reference: “Face the future Ukraine” is a mission of Canadian and American reconstructive surgeons, which brings together world experts and their Ukrainian counterparts to restore physical health and aesthetic beauty of people injured in enemy shelling. They also work with servicemen who have suffered face and neck injuries on the front line.
From March 1 to June 1, Modern Ukraine charity foundation will organize and conduct art therapy master classes in Poltava, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Fastiv, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Yuzhne, and Kyiv. There will be more than 20 master classes in total. Women who lost their loved ones in the war will take part in the events. The paintings created at the master classes will be shown at exhibitions in Dnipro, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Novovolynsk and Volodymyr.
“Zhyva. True Love Stories” project is a volunteer initiative that helps Ukrainian women who are experiencing the loss of husbands and fiancés to rediscover the meaning of life and channel their pain into creativity.
More than 100 women have already participated in “Zhyva. TRUE LOVE STORIES” project – they created paintings in memory of their husbands and wrote their own stories for these canvases. Many paintings were on display in the regional exhibitions “PAINTING WITH HEART,” which took place during 2023-2024 in Kyiv, Lviv and Lutsk.
In December 2024, Modern Ukraine foundation will organize a nationwide exhibition featuring works by the participants of the “Zhyva” project in Kyiv.
Journalists are invited to learn more about the project and cover it.
Vladyslav Molodykh is a serviceman of the 71st Jaeger Brigade. The occupiers stormed the dugout, where Vladyslav and his brother in arms had been staying for 3 days. During the assault, Vladyslav Molodykh eliminated at least 6 russian invaders. Then the russians blocked the exit from the dugout with the Ukrainians. Also, the debris from a nearby house collapsed into their dugout.
The soldiers, who found themselves under the rubble, ate dry rations until they ran out. The fighters had to survive at sub-zero temperatures without food and water. They melted the snow to quench their thirst at least a little.
Later, the Ukrainians managed to make a small hole in the pile of the debris, through which Vladyslav’s brother in arms climbed out. Other defenders found him with the help of a drone. Vladyslav remained in the dugout for another two weeks. In total, he stayed underground for 41 days. In the end, the man was saved by soldiers who were looking for Vladyslav. Currently, the military man is undergoing rehabilitation in Vinnytsia region.
Additionally: Vladyslav Molodykh is ready to communicate with journalists, both online and offline, by prior agreement.
Maryna and Mykola are both military, they met in 2019 in the army. The woman had two daughters from a previous marriage — Olena and Oleksandra. Mykola also has a daughter named Milana. At first, the family lived in Mariupol, Donetsk region (now the city is occupied), then they moved to Berdiansk, Zaporizhia region (now the city is occupied).
The couple served in the Azov brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. In 2020, Mykola resigned from the Azov and joined the marines. Maryna’s contract ended in November 2021, but she did not want to leave her brothers in arms.
When the full-scale invasion began, Maryna, along with other Azov defenders of Mariupol ended up at the Azovstal plant (i.e. Iron and Steel Works where fierce battles with the enemy took place in the spring of 2022). Mykola wanted to switch with Marina and go to Azovstal instead of her. The woman persuaded him not to do this, because at the checkpoint the russians shot three guys who were on the way to meet their girlfriends, and many others who broke through to the plant went missing. Even then Maryna understood that she and other military personnel were unlikely to get out of the Azovstal alive. And she asked her husband to take care of her daughters. On May 8, 2022, the woman died in a fire at the Azovstal.
Now Mykola is fighting for the right to adopt his deceased wife’s daughters and give them a happy future. He is purchasing a three-room apartment for the girls in Kyiv region so they could live together as a family.
With the help of the Children of Heroes Fund, Maryna’s daughters received gifts and visited a rehabilitation camp, which helped them to distract themselves from terrible memories and disturbing thoughts.
For reference: the defense of Mariupol lasted 86 days. Following the order of the command, the Ukrainian defenders stopped putting up the defense, left Azovstal and surrendered to the enemy. On May 20, 2022, Mariupol was occupied by russia.
The Children of Heroes Charity Fund supports children who have lost one or both parents due to russia’s full-scale invasion. The fund offers financial aid as well as psychological and legal support. The organization helps these children with education and development until they reach adulthood.
As of the beginning of February, 7,889 wards are under the care of the Fund. Of them, 1,062 are IDPs, 151 children have lost their mother and father, 177 are children with disabilities, 970 are children from large families. Every week about 80 children are included into the list of the recipients of the fund’s help. Among the fund’s children, 88% are kids of military personnel, while the remaining 12% are civilians.
When the Revolution of Dignity began, Leonid Fedevich became an active participant. And after the escape of the traitorous president Viktor Yanukovych and the beginning of the russian aggression in Crimea and the East of Ukraine, the Fedevich couple turned their own small clothing store into a volunteer warehouse: they brought in all the necessary supplies for the army and later handed them over to the soldiers at the front lines. In the summer of 2014, Leonid joined the volunteer battalion named after General Serhii Kulchytskyi. He took part in the battles near Horlivka (Donetsk region) and Stanytsia Luhanska (Luhansk region).
He returned to his usual life after two years of service and worked as a lawyer. However, the war changed the man’s worldview and a civilian profession was not easy for him. In 2020, Leonid’s younger son offered him to try his hand at blacksmithing. Together with his two sons, the man started their own business, working only with an angle grinder and a welding machine in the garage. They did not have time to scale their business, as in February 2022, Leonid once again joined the army. At 7 AM on February 24, the man was already at the Military Recruitment Office, and a few days later he went to the frontlines.
In September 2022, Leonid was discharged from service due to injuries and the veteran returned to blacksmithing. With the support of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation, the man bought new equipment for the workshop in Lviv. In addition to custom-made forged products, Leonid manufactures potbelly stoves for the Armed Forces. Last year, the veteran sent 60 stoves to the Ukrainian military, more than 30 of them this year. Together with his sons, Leonid also makes monuments and crosses, and now the family is working on the Alley of Memory in Drohobych.
Recruitment centers are waiting for everyone who wants to join the army, in particular, the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion. In the centers, potential recruits can talk to active servicemen, find out more about the service, take a career orientation test and choose the desired position. There are positions both in the rear and in assault groups. The battalion needs clerks, lawyers, drivers, infantry and gunners. Recruitment centers explain that they do not accept everyone: volunteers must first go through a thorough selection process. They also note that the most important thing for potential military personnel is the desire and motivation to defend the Motherland.
For reference: Da Vinci Wolves is a military formation created by the Hero of Ukraine Dmytro “Da Vinci” Kotsiubailo in 2014. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Da Vinci Wolves company grew into a battalion, which in the fall of 2022 became a part of Ukrainian Armed Forces’ 67th separate mechanized brigade. Since 2022, Da Vinci Wolves has participated in the Kharkiv counteroffensive, battles for Bakhmut, Severodonetsk, and Lysychansk. On March 7, 2023, Dmytro Kotsiubailo was fatally wounded near the city of Bakhmut. On March 10, thousands of Ukrainians came to say goodbye to him in Kyiv. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the then commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and Head of Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov also came to pay their respects.
The peaceful rallies are scheduled to coincide with the second anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion and the tenth anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war. Organizers anticipate gatherings in at least 10 Ukrainian cities.
On February 23, rallies are expected in Khmelnytskyi.
February 24 will see events in Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Pavlohrad, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, and Krolevets (Sumy region).
On February 25, demonstrations are planned in Dnipro, Ternopil, and Ovruch (Zhytomyr region).
These events are coordinated by families of prisoners of war from the Mariupol garrison.
For reference: According to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, over 8,000 Ukrainians, both civilians and military personnel, are believed to remain in Russian custody.
On February 21, an interactive presentation of the photo project entitled “Stronger than the Elements” will take place in Kyiv. The event will include a presentation of an art calendar featuring servicewomen (including those released from captivity), veterans, doctors, volunteers and more.
Twelve Ukrainian women who took part in “Stronger than the Elements” photo project are depicted as various natural phenomena. In addition to the four main elements — water, fire, earth, and air — the women personify lava, downpour, avalanche, thunder, lightning, wind, and other formidable natural phenomena.
For example, some of the participants of the photo project include: “Lava” — Valeria “Nava” Subotina, defender of Mariupol, writer; “Lightning” — Dzvenyslava Sira, medical curator of the “Azov” Patronage Service, soldier of the 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov” of the National Guard of Ukraine; “Hurricane” — Natalia Nahorna, military correspondent of TSN, 1+1 TV channel and others.
The initiative to bring these women together for a joint project belongs to Anna Murashenko, Founder of the YOUkraine Charitable Foundation.
The women who took part in the photo project, volunteers, soldiers and representatives of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War will take part in the event.
Funds from the sale of the charity calendar will be spent to purchase drones for the 72nd Mechanized Brigade named after the Black Zaporozhians.
The event requires accreditation.
