“Lituny” is the name given to a group of volunteers who, for two years of war with barbaric Russia, have been providing assistance in sending humanitarian cargo from San Francisco to Warsaw or Krakow, and from there to Ukraine. Today we will tell you more about this volunteer movement. The history of this movement began in the early days of the war in early March 2022.

The scale of the tragedy did not leave Ukrainians in California indifferent, and the growing needs of the Armed Forces and medical services forced us all to take action, says Yarema Kuzyishyn, one of the first activists of the “Lituyny” community. Every day and every hour was critical in delivering such important items as body armor, protective equipment, helmets, tourniquets, and tactical medicine. But none of the postal services could offer delivery within 2-3 days. For the first six months, we had to negotiate with airlines for a discount on baggage fees for each flight. Some airlines offered a partial discount, others 50%, and there were even those who agreed to transport cargo free of charge, which ultimately saved us thousands of dollars. We are infinitely grateful to all the airlines for their support.

As in most cases, it all started with a post on Facebook asking, “Who is flying to Poland in the near future?” Fortunately, the next day, a Ukrainian woman from Sacramento who was flying to Krakow responded. So, the first “flyer” with three suitcases containing 10 bulletproof vests for the defenders of Kyiv delivered such valuable cargo in a day. It is worth noting that this valuable purchase was made by Ms. Natalia Anon, who subsequently financed tens of thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid. We are very grateful to her!

Subsequently, the number of people who wanted to send supplies to their relatives, friends, and acquaintances grew, and we all began to meet at the San Francisco airport and hand over suitcases to passengers who agreed to take these humanitarian supplies to Europe. Among these proactive Ukrainians who took on the responsibility of receiving, accounting for, and organizing deliveries from San Francisco to Ukraine is Ivan Hyde. The first few months of shipments were so intense that sometimes we had to send 2-3 times a week!

Gradually, the team of volunteers who ensured the shipments grew. And now more than 20 people are involved in organizing this process. Each volunteer on the team is responsible for a specific part of the project.

Olga Nakhodkina, Zhenia Militeeva, and Volodymyr Prokurashko are responsible for packing, preparing documents, organizing the receipt of cargo on the other side of the ocean, and other organizational issues.

Maksym Pavlishin and Oksana Stus are responsible for systematizing and preparing shipments for dispatch.

Ruslan Kiyanchuk and Oleg Zenzin are responsible for coordination at the San Francisco airport.

The rest of our team is responsible for transporting the cargo to the airport:

Anna Demydenko, Dmytro Heichenko, Yarema Kuzyshyn, Maks Bregeda, Max Kuzmenko, Oleksandr Golovatyi, Sergey Lobov, Sergii Gubenko, Andrii Gubenko, Vlad Karpinsky, Yulia Shafranova, and Yuriy Sokolov.

Ivan Haid is responsible for coordinating the entire process.

We extend our gratitude to everyone who purchases and provides our defenders with the necessary equipment for combat. All of these items help save the lives of thousands of Ukrainians.

Our movement would not be possible without the help of friends and volunteers from Rivne, namely: Andrii Semenovych, Olha Stepanyuk, and Victoria Shynkarenko from the public organization “Help the Army Rivne.” They ensure the rapid delivery of cargo from Poland to Ukraine and its further distribution to recipients.

After two years of activity, here are the figures and scale of humanitarian aid sent:

1,500 suitcases weighing approximately 35 tons, worth $3.5 million, were delivered. Compensation from airlines in the amount of $500,000 was returned.

This is the aid that has been delivered by Ukrainians in California during almost two years of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The items delivered were urgently needed to save human lives. Ukrainians in California have been sending aid regularly since 2014, but the large-scale invasion has galvanized the community to increase its assistance.

And finally, a huge thank you to the wings on which most of this humanitarian aid was transported, the American airline United Airlines! They provided their services free of charge during the most difficult time for us Ukrainians! Thank you, United Airlines! Friends, this is a compelling argument for us to always use United Airlines and be grateful to them for their help!

The war continues, do not reduce the amount of aid and donations, only in unity are we strong!

Together to Victory!

Glory to Ukraine!

Glory to the heroes!