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BBC OS Conversations: Ukrainian aid from the US

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BBC OS Conversations on Ukrainian aid from the US

26/04/2024 GMT

Ukrainian aid from the US

BBC World Service - BBC OS Conversations, Ukrainian aid from the US

How Americans with Ukrainian heritage are funding medical packages, vans and art therapy

After months of delays, US politicians agreed a $61bn aid package of military assistance for Ukraine to support their fight with Russia.  

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said it could save thousands of lives in the war and President Joe Biden said it would make the world safer.

In this edition, host Luke Jones hears from Americans who continuously raise support of their own for the Ukraine war effort. Many have family or friends in Ukraine and their fundraising supports everything from vehicles to medical aid to art therapy.

Nastia was born in Ukraine but has lived in Chicago since she was a child. “I got married in January,” she says. “Instead of gifts we used that money to buy a drone. Everybody at the wedding signed it and we sent it to my cousin and his battalion and they are currently using it.”

Stephen Haluszczak from Pittsburgh, is involved in courses using art for children traumatised by war. “They’re teaching them artistic skills,” he says. “They teach them culinary arts, they teach them financial skills. They’re giving them a childhood in microcosm and trying to give them where they can trust people again, where they can learn to form relationships and see that there is a future.” 

Another of our guests is Jason, who owns the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka in New York. And he explains how he has been donating money from the sale of certain dishes, such as borsch. 

A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS team.

(Photo: Iryna Discipio-Vashchuk with soldiers she helps through her organisation Revived Soldiers Ukraine. Credit: Iryna Discipio-Vashchuk)

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