From the first weeks of the war, the rector of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Bortnychi (Kyiv district), Archpriest Vitaliy Matiashchuk, set up a fundraiser for the Armed Forces. At first, together with parishioners, he helped Ukrainian soldiers by delivering food. Later, thanks to friendly relations with Ukrainians living in the United States, a variety of tactical assistance began to arrive from overseas. Also in the church donations are constantly collected for the needs of the Ukrainian Army.
KV learned about this from its own correspondent, who spoke with the priest.
“In the first weeks of the aggression with, there were issues with food, both for our military, local residents, and parishioners, who for one reason or another didn’t leave Kyiv. The shelves of many stores were almost empty five to seven days into the Russian invasion. We had some food stocks available: cereals, pasta, flour, oil, sweets, etc., which we were able to provide to support our military at checkpoints nearby and one of the district’s defense centers. We also shared with everyone who came to our church. Thank God that the food situation improved then, because our stocks were also running low.
When the food situation improved and we all recovered from the early days’ shock, I began asking for help from Ukrainians in the United States and diaspora. At the same time, fundraising for the needs of the Ukrainian Army was set up in our parish. All donations, collected on recent holidays – the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter), Palm Sunday, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and others – we send for the purchase of everything that can help our defenders. Our parishioners are among those fighting against the hordes of Putin’s invaders.
I am very pleased that Ukrainians living overseas have responded to my plea for help. We have repeatedly received bulletproof vests, tourniquets, tactical first aid kits, and hemostatic agents, power banks, goggles, knee pads, and batteries. This is by no means a complete list of everything we have received from patriots in the United States. And recently, Mr. Roman Volytskyy came to us from America, who even brought an American uniform and berets besides all of the above. Therefore, I would like to especially mention Mr. Roman, Mr. Victor (Mr. Borisiuk – KV) and the Washington-based organization United Help Ukraine, the Ukrainian community in Philadelphia; community of Syracuse, whose help to our Army is most tangible.
Before sending all these items, I consecrate them in our temple and we immediately send them out to our guys.
Finally, I would like to recall the words of John Chrysostom: Faith is a shield, and the shield is the first to receive enemy blows. Therefore, I appeal to everyone not to lose faith in these days of hardships. May your faith be steadfast and protect you from all evil! ”
It should be recalled that the UOC-US has raised $1.9 million for affected Ukrainians and continues to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. The Kharkiv Military Hospital also received an ambulance purchased by parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA.
