Welcome to the inaugural edition of Behind The Front Line! Each month, we’ll provide a little UFL news alongside a rundown of what your contributions accomplished.
By the Numbers
January saw you contribute over $26,000 to Ukraine’s fight for its survival.
Dollars into Difference-Makers
You provided:
- Repairs to a GUR unit’s combat-damaged vehicle
- A thermal imager for a unit we shouldn’t specify, who send their thanks from the trench where they’re putting it to use
- A thermal camera and a PVS-7 night vision device for the fearsome 82nd Air Assault Brigade, who are fighting in the hot zone of Robotyne
- 140 Combat application tourniquets (CATs), perhaps the most important item in a combat first aid kit, for Cossackgundi, Renegade Relief Runners, and the 30th Mechanized Brigade
- In cooperation with Paige Barrows and Palyanytsya Synelnykivshchyny, a Mitsubishi Warrior for the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade
- In cooperation with some individual donors in Ukraine, a Nissan Pathfinder for the 5th Separate Assault Brigade
- 3D printer filament for a person 3D printing drone parts, to complement the Bambu 3D printer you bought for him in December (he wishes to remain anonymous)
- Thermal base layers and warm socks for 81 tankers in a brigade we can’t name
- Repairs to, and transport of, a boat for a group we can’t name operating in occupied Kherson Oblast
We extend special thanks to the exceptionally kind Judy Striewig. Judy organized a donation drive which sent $2300 worth of tacmed and hand warmers to Ukraine. Renegade Relief Runners will distribute them to units who need them.
Judy, thank you!
A New Way to Help: An Amazon Wishlist for Tacmed!
Strange true: there are fads in aid just as there are in everything else, it seems. Right now the real hot tickets are vehicles and FPV drones. But the need for humble but crucial tacmed remains urgent and perennial. Tacmed is foundational: if you can’t keep your soldiers healthy and intact, who’s going to operate all those drones and vehicles?
You can donate to us for tacmed, of course. We also know that people really enjoy buying things for Ukrainian soldiers themselves. So we’ve resurrected our Amazon wishlist! You buy it, we’ll fly it.
A Look Ahead
February 24th will be two years to the day since russia launched its deranged full-scale war on Ukraine. We’ll mark the occasion by raising money to help Ukrainians send all those orcs home the right way: an extremely special raffle and auction. We’ll announce the details next week.
Thank you!
We are perpetually grateful for your steadfast support of Ukraine!
Postscript: The 10th Anniversary of the Battle for Maidan
February 24 isn’t the only grim anniversary we mark in February. The Battle for Maidan, the horrific culmination of Ukraine’s 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity, began on February 18, 2014. Then-president Viktor Yanukovych’s goons launched a massacre against peaceful demonstrators marching toward Verkhovna Rada, then stormed and burned the tent city on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The fighting lasted for three days, until Yanukovych finally called off his goons and fled to russia in fear and disgrace on February 21. Dozens of Maidanivtsi were killed.
The Revolution of Dignity was the moment when Ukraine turned firmly and irrevocably away from russia. The Battle for Maidan was the moment when it was won. The price was high.
As we move toward these hideous anniversaries, please spare a thought for the tens of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians who withstood a bitter winter on Maidan delivering supplies, running makeshift kitchens and clinics, manning barricades, patrolling, defending, and finally fighting Ukraine’s first significant battle against russia’s twisted imperialism in this century. Please take a moment to honor Nebesna Sotnya, the Heavenly Hundred who lost their lives.
If you’d like to know more, the documentary Winter on Fire is a decent start. The independent filmmaking collective Babylon’13 released an outstanding series of more intimate, in-depth documentaries on the revolution called The Winter That Changed Us. The Heavenly Hundred installment is particularly enlightening.