As Russian forces continue to invade, residents of North Texas have been showing their support for Ukraine through rallies and donations. One nonprofit, the Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas, hosted a caravan on February 25 to collect medical supplies for Ukrainian civilians.
Member of the club Olena Jacobs, who owns a small storefront called Ukie-Style, collected several boxes of urgent supplies, NBC 5 reported.
“There is a box here with bandages,” Jacobs told NBC. “They are blood-clotting bandages, this is extremely important for people who get wounded.”
Jacobs grew up in Eastern Ukraine and explained the supplies came from local army shops in North Texas. She stated each shop sold the supplies at a discount since they were being used to help efforts in Ukraine. The supplies were sent out on February 28, but it could take two weeks for them to arrive.
“We ship it with air, they take it by airplane to Poland and then load it into trucks and drive to Ukraine,” Jacobs told NBC.
According to Jacobs, the Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas will be working on the ground in Poland to make sure donations are taken directly to Ukrainian citizens.
The nonprofit’s February 25 caravan, which traveled from Plano to Dallas to Fort Worth, was joined by dozens of North Texans who rallied behind their efforts to support Ukraine, NBC reported.
“The objective here is to cover as much land as we can,” said the president of the Ukrainian Cultural Club of Dallas, Nataliya Shtanyuk. “There [are] not necessarily a lot of government officials here that we can reach directly but we can reach the American public.”
The rally featured protesters with Ukrainian flags and signs reading “Putin get out of Ukraine” and “stop the war.”
According to NBC, several North Texans who were part of the caravan have personal connections to Ukraine.
Natalie Berezoysha, a Ukraine native, told NBC she is “devastated.”
Berezoysha added that she has family and friends who are still living in their homeland.
“We’re going to carry this trauma for generations but right now, we really need world support, really,” she said. “The world must do more.”
Another Ukrainian native, Yevgen Barsukov, attended the rally on February 25 and spoke to NBC. He was joined by his father Pavlo, who made it out of Ukraine on one of the last flights.
Barsukov was one of many in attendance who felt sanctions would not be enough to stop Russia, according to NBC.
“The only way to stop a tyrant is with military. They don’t stop otherwise, right?” Barsukov asked.
He also translated for his father, saying, “His only [regret] is that he’s not right now in Kyiv right now, they’re giving people machine guns [to] go and fight. He wants to be there to help with the machine guns and go and fight.”
Jacobs told NBC she stayed late in her shop on February 26 to restock Ukrainian flags and other apparel that had sold out. She added the best way to help Ukrainian citizens is through reputable charities.
“What is happening right now with [what] Russia [is] doing to Ukraine is only because [the] Ukraine [has] chosen a way of democracy,” she said. “We know from history dictators like that (Putin), they don’t stop.”