Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Nearly $4 million in life-saving medical supplies have been shipped to Ukraine by local volunteers
Sasha Sakurets, a Ukrainian American volunteer and nurse at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital, and Mykola Sarazhynskyy, a volunteer with Stand with Ukraine MN, sort through surplus orthopedic surgery instruments in the hospital's basement.
The mood was festive as hundreds of Ukrainian Americans packed into a community center in northeast Minneapolis last month for a night of celebration, folk dancers in flowered headdresses leaping and twirling across the stage.
But a silence swept the room as the dancers exited. All eyes turned to a big screen showing a closeup video of a gaping wound - and masked doctors in Odesa performing surgery on a wounded Ukrainian using cardiovascular tools sent from Minnesota. Many in the crowd of more than 300 were moved to tears.
The raw footage was a grim reminder of the realities of a war that has left more than 100,000 Ukrainian troops dead or wounded, driven 13.5 million people from their homes, and brought horror to nearly every corner of the country. For organizers of the event, the video was also meant as an urgent call to action. Without more medical supplies, including high-tech suction devices for cleaning wounds, soldiers and civilians would continue to die unnecessarily, organizers said.
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