February 15-22, 2025

Fastiv, 15.02–22.02.2025

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The third year of the “Great War” is coming to an end, and our struggle has been going on for the eleventh year. I am writing these words to you from the Kharkiv region from our dear sisters, with whom we are staying on our way to the Donetsk region. The Congregation of the Little Sisters Missionaries of Charity (Orionists) welcomes single mothers with children, the needy, and the displaced in their monastery – this place has also become our Home on the Donetsk Way.

In recent days, we have been on the Pokrovsk direction, in the city of Bilozerske, where 5,000 displaced people live live. This is a very large number of people from different localities: Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, Kostyantynivka. We are glad that we were able to satisfy the request from the union of people with disabilities from Pokrovsk, who turned to us to delivered everything they needed: food, household chemicals, diapers, and everything related to caring for people with limited mobility. The city of Bilozerske has become a safe space of hope for all those who were forced to move there, because neighbors and strangers take care of those who are weak and lonely.

With humanitarian aid, we also reached our long-time acquaintances in Kostyantynivka. In my opinion, the situation in the city is getting worse, especially in the Toretske direction. The front from Kostyantynivka currently varies depending on the place, but is mostly 7–10 kilometers. People are tense and waiting, because the situation is unstable. There are days when the city is hit by guided aerial bombs, which are called “kabs” for short. Sometimes there are more than 10 per day. People are scared, there are wounded and killed among civilians. Regardless of these difficult circumstances, many are waiting and are not ready to leave their homes. Of course, we always try to convince them to evacuate to safer places, and also invite them to Kyiv region, but it doesn’t always work.

We visited our friends – Ms. Svitlana Hrekova, who takes care of the shelter in Druzhkivka. Since the beginning of the cold weather, we have provided over 20 tons of humanitarian aid to heat the mobile shelter where internally displaced persons live, because everyone who flees the war comes here. It is difficult to describe specific situations, but all these people have lost loved ones, property, and their homes. They are often disoriented, but also full of hope that safety awaits them here; it is really very warm and cozy here. When I arrive, I am touched by the atmosphere of love and care. People get three meals a day, and conditions are as close to home as possible.

We thank our dear Dominican sisters from Zhovkva who sent us a pallet of porridge. Thank you for the charity fair organized by Charytatywni Freta, which took place last Sunday, and 18 thousand zlotys were collected for the transportation of humanitarian cargo from Warsaw to Fastiv. Thank you to the XENIA Charity Foundation for your support in such a difficult time and for the humanitarian aid. Thanks to the grant received from Interactions Solidarity Monaco, Mr. Pavlo Bandazhevsky has already brought humanitarian cargo to Fastiv, and we have already taken part of it to the Donetsk region this week. Thank you, Mr. Pavlo for your sacrifice and all the sleepless nights.

Thanks to the Secular Dominicans in Zwolle and the Dominican Fathers who organized a wonderful charity concert on February 16 to support humanitarian needs and support our activities. You can listen to a fragment of the concert in one of the comments under my “report”. Thank you Piet Neeft and everyone in Zwolle for your generous support and care.

Thank you to the Humanitarian Nova Poshta for all the cargo that you paid for and sent at your own expense within the framework of the “Permanent Partnership” program. Thank you to Mr. Olaf and Sonya Atlantova for supporting our projects.

Thank you to the Univest Marketing company, director Mr. Volodymyr Kudryashov, for supporting social projects, for tens of thousands of pieces of disposable tableware for the social kitchen in front-line Kherson and in Fastiv.

We thank everyone who remembers us, in particular in these last three years, thank you for being with us. Thank you to our Defenders. Thank you to all the friends of Ukraine, to all those whose names we do not know. We look to the future with hope, everyone works in their place, fights for victory, for light, so that there is more of this light, so that we can overcome the darkness of evil and the aggressor, so that we can live in a free and independent Ukraine.

May the Lord protect you.

With prayers

Fr. Mykhailo Romaniv OP