Volunteering for Ukraine: DONATE to Help!

Updated on 25.05.2022

The Story

On 24th of February, 2022, war knocked on my door in Kyiv with explosions, windows, walls and doors shaking – I’ve evacuated my family to a safe place in Ukraine. The following few days I’ve been able to help a couple dozen women and children evacuate and find places to stay in Poland & Moldova and travel further to other countries (Thank You – Andrew Nawrocki, Tatiana Kazantseva, Ukrainiski Dom in Warsaw). It’s been a group effort, and continues to be.

I teamed up with Nikita Khlystun and we started our journey of volunteering on wheels. We drove to a humanitarian aid hub in Chernivtsi (Thank You – NGO “Bukovynska Gromada” for stocking us eight or nine times already with vital aid), where we packed my car full with meds and food and returned to besieged Kyiv delivering addressed packages to soldiers and volunteers, distributed aid to help people that were left without access to their much needed medicines, because all the pharmacies closed at once. We were able to give out food to the elderly right on the street and supplied the territorial forces, which helped keep Kyiv a safe place.

A special portion of gratefulness goes out to the very active community of my building in Kyiv (Egor Prishepkin, Ulyana, and everyone), who are doing an amazing and constant job of cooking for the local forces every day, bring aid to families and survivors of Bucha and Irpyn, and take care of the local needs. It is always a pleasure to bring them food and supplies, because I see how they serve the community of our defenders.

Luckily the situation in Kyiv has stabilized and became much safer in the recent weeks. The ruZZian terrorists have been forced to leave the Kyiv region and a few supply lines for food and pharmaceuticals have been revived. This was the main factor to expand our efforts to serve the Sumy region, a hospital in Bobrovytsia in the Chernihiv region, and volunteer organizations in Kharkiv, where we brought humanitarian aid and were able to evacuate some people.

Besides NGO “Bukovynska Gromada” there are several humanitarian aid hubs run by volunteers in Kyiv (Thank You – Igor Vodyanyy, Elizabeth, Vladislav Kinishuk, Mark Maro, Irina Gutsal, Eugene and the Pechersk volunteers) and Nemyriv (Thank You – Misha L and the team) that supplied us for further distribution and vice versa with goods that they and we source from Ukraine, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, USA, Canada and other countries (Thank You – to all of the international supporters). It is an amazing decentralized network that is built on trust and goodwill. We play a role in delivering directly to people in need and to volunteers that serve the elderly, children’s homes, refugees and people that have suffered immensely from this terroruZZian warfare. In addition to that, an organization that I’ve co-founded in 2014 (NGO Automaidan Kyiv) that has been active over the eight years of war in helping our military by sourcing goods, ambulances, equipment, tourniquets and much more, is helping us with deliveries to places, where Nova Poshta (a Ukrainian delivery service similar to DHL/FedEx/UPS) is active. But such delivery service is not able to serve the newly freed or contested regions, which we can serve, where we can bring humanitarian aid that is needed immediately.

We mobilized our resources that were available and tapped into our local and international connections to bring aid to people in need and to evacuate those that desire. However – we can do more and we will be doing more. To immensely increase our capacity and to work with larger scale supplies that we are able to source, we are looking to expand our fleet from my own Chevrolet Orlando with a box on top and random other volunteers on wheels – to a few vans like Ford Transit, Mercedes Sprinter, VW Crafter or something similar, used but in decent condition. Therefore we are actively fundraising to be able to help more and deliver more humanitarian aid to more people in need in eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.

Plans

We plan to (1.) run at least two larger vehicles simultaneuosly, because when we deliver food and meds and not everyone that is in need is able to get at least something to make their lives at least bearable just because we ran out – it hurts me, it hurts us all. Of course people share the aid with their neighbors, but still, the realities are that it’s not certain when the next shipment will take place and whether volunteers will get there soon.

For example during the recent trip to Kharkiv, after delivering everything, we discovered that a once flourishing community of Obriy (on the east side of town) that once housed tens of thousands of people is cut off from all supply lines. Now there are only about 200 people remaining there – mostly older folks with disabilities that physically can not leave and a few dozen active women and men that take care of their neighbors, bring and cook them food, take care of what is left. There is no intact transport left, at all. Volunteers are mostly afraid to go there, because it was closer to the front line. When we arrived there, our car was empty and I was devastated. At least I had a few packs of Levothyroxine left, just in case, and for one of the inhabitants – it was the case, as he ran out of this medication a week ago and was turning green and swelling up. He’s got no Thyroid gland and would have died soon. At least we were able to direct volunteers from Kharkiv city to go there and bring food, because they were running close to zero on anything edible.

We plan to (2.) expand the list of our suppliers and there are several organizations and individuals that have expressed their interest and readiness to cooperate to deliver larger quantities of aid, where it’s fiercely needed. Usually those are perfect places to deliver with vans, because they are absolutely not suited for receiving full scale long haul trucks that simply can’t cross rivers over temporary bridges while the regular bridges are blown up. It is also imperative to help as close to the front as possible – not only with food and meds, but also protective and other equipment for the troops, with flexible logistical services that are independent and can provide a helping hand wherever needed.

We plan to (3.) intensify and empower the volunteers and organizations that have shown themselves as trustworthy, honest, self-less. These are the people that keep our heart ticking in the most difficult of times. This is the greatest feeling that we got here in Ukraine – we are not alone. The neighbors help, people from all around are ready to put their lives on the line for our survival, for our future, because we believe in each other and it is an imperative of utmost importance to keep it that way. This is the building block on which the future of Ukraine will rely upon for ages to come. No corruption, no ill will.

Gratitude

We are grateful for the trust that so many people have shown us and would like to thank everyone that is always there to support, to encourage, to walk along this rough road – the only road that we have. The people that seemingly have no connection, but feel the need to be part of this struggle for the good with any & all means available, because on a moral level there is a barrier that has been crossed and has put a knife into the heart of anyone able to call themselves human.

In particular I would like to thank the following people, who already contributed to our common cause cause with their hard earned money, which will be used to buy the necessary vehicle and keep it running to help people in Ukraine’s most devastated areas. I am proud that you trust us and we’re in this together. We never walk alone. Thank You!!!

Progress and Stats

We have raised:
USD 7625
EUR 2100
UAH 8250
All of this is reserved for purchasing vehicles at the moment. I should be able to deliver you a major update this week.

Further funds will be used for running the fleet, because we face rising fuel costs and continuous repairs & maintenance. I will try to raise much more in order to cover extra shipments of life saving goods including antidots (Atropin), military grade first aid kits (JFAK), tourniquets and hemostatics, as well as equipment and materials for hospitals (the first shipment will be delivered this week!!!).

Meanwhile – the running costs (gas and repairs) amount to:
>UAH 54,135 (that’s close to USD2000)

We delivered about ~6000 kilos of various humanitarian aid, including up to ~1500 kilos of medicines, Evacuated several families and always happy to give free rides for volunteers and anyone, who needs one. Delivered directly to hundreds of people in Kyiv, Dymer, Gavrylivka, Bobrovytsia, Sumy, Kharkiv, to countless people via partner volunteers in Irpyn, Bucha, Trostyanets, Pokrovsk, Myrnograd, Novogrodivka, Dobropillia and other places.

Hence, we encourage you to join us and help us help more people by donating and buying my artworks. Three smaller paintings have been sold and shipped and will arrive soon to the most amazing people that are also on this list of honor. But we hope to buy a van even before they arrive 😉

Donations

PAYPAL – no fees!

kmarlinski@gmail.com

SEPA – EUR – no fees!

Account Number (IBAN) – GB68CLJU00997181048698
BIC – CLJUGB21
Account Holder Name – MARLINSKI KIRILL
TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) – 3048426892
Bank – Clear Junction Limited
Bank Address – 15 Kingsway, London WC2B 6UN

SWIFT in USD

Beneficiary
IBAN – UA593220010000026206303834147
Account No – 26206303834147
Recipient – MARLINSKI KIRILL, 01033, Ukraine, c. Kyiv, st. Tarasivska, build. 7, fl. 6
Account with Institution
Bank – JSC UNIVERSAL BANK
City – KYIV, UKRAINE
Swift code – UNJSUAUKXXX
Details of payment – PRIVATE TRANSFER

SWIFT in EUR

Beneficiary
IBAN – UA373220010000026201303773797
Account No – 26201303773797
Recipient – MARLINSKI KIRILL, 01033, Ukraine, c. Kyiv, st. Tarasivska, build. 7, fl. 6
Account with Institution
Bank – JSC UNIVERSAL BANK
City – KYIV, UKRAINE
Swift code – UNJSUAUKXXX
Details of payment – PRIVATE TRANSFER

CRYPTO

ETH – 0x2f09De805f60233bc8c5988EC8D4a0C983E00fd3

BTC – 3HDAxuYq5YhekRMrX9Hsn5rnEE5YjGLeZA

UAH

Monobank – 5375414112586028

VISA / MasterCard / American Express / Discover