My grandfather fled the Ukraine, his home, after WW2 because of the oppression Stalin inflicted on the people of Ukraine, having settled in Corby he worked tirelessly to support his family. Eventually I came along and when I finally grew up at the age of 25 decided I must go and visit the Ukraine, to find out where part of my heritage had come from. I spoke to my grandfather who advised I cannot just go by myself, I would need help, a guide/translator, he introduced me to Iryna who greeted me at the Kyiv airport and I instantly fell in love. 6 months later we were married. Fast forward almost 15 years and we are living in the beautiful town of Olney in Buckinghamshire. We have our own local business, Body and Mind Botanicals and having survived Covid for 2 years we were hopeful of 2022 being a better year.

As it turns out, Vladimir Putin had other ideas and again we find our world turned upside down. Since Russia invaded the Ukraine, we have been working hard to do all we can from here in the UK. We take in daily donations of essential foods, medicines, hygiene products and clothes. We pack them up into sorted boxes and either hand them over to the Ukrainian Church in Peterborough or Help Ukraine BAMK, who organise the shipments from the UK to help the refugees in the surrounding friendly countries or directly into Ukraine. This has been going tremendously well, however we have now run into issues which are preventing these goods getting into the hands of the people who need them. The lorries need money to buy fuel to drive from the UK and they need money to pay for the ferry to cross the channel. We have family and friends working as volunteers in the Ukraine to transport people out of the conflict areas and bring in fresh supplies, but they to have run out of money for fuel to make the very dangerous trips.

Also, the Ukrainian people are standing up against tyranny, many non-trained men and women are volunteering to join the fight, but they do not have the equipment like Helmets, Bullet Proof Vests, Night vision goggles protect themselves.

This JustGiving page has been setup to fill in the gaps of what is not being taken care of by the other collections and donations.

We please ask you give generously to ensure we can stand up to Putin, Ukraine can win this fight and save innocent lives.

Many thanks for your support

Martin and Iryna Kaprockyj

Slava Ukraini