WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova was in Cleveland Friday, appearing with former U.S. Senator Rob Portman at the City Club of Cleveland.
Her visit comes as Congress has yet to take up the Biden Administration's request for more funding for Ukraine. But while Washington is at a standstill, the people of Northeast Ohio are not and are continuing to make a difference.
While the Ambassador was appearing downtown volunteers were in a warehouse in Warrensville Heights working to load the latest shipment of medical and other supplies headed out to war-torn areas of Ukraine as part of the ongoing efforts of the Cleveland Maidan Association. Count Myroslav Pylypchyk among them.
"It's a bad time for Ukraine; all of Ukrainian people need now help," he said.
Like many, Myroslav gives up his time to this effort to help the people of his homeland but the reality is he's already given more than most.
You see, Myroslav is a Lieutenant in the Ukrainian Army who found himself in May of last year moving into a Russian position when he stepped on a land mine, shattering his leg so severely that doctors had to amputate it. He came with his wife and young son to the U.S. to be fitted for a prosthetic and rehabilitation. This is his way of continuing to serve.
"I come here because I want to help our friends, our Ukrainian people," he said.
In this effort, it's all hands on deck. This forklift operator just happened to be Taras Mahlay, a doctor of internal medicine and the one organizing these shipments, around 20 so far, of mainly donated medical supplies. But on this day they're also packing up warm clothes collected by students in Shaker Heights and the Halo Foundation in Akron.
"We have a container; we always have to fill the container, so we'll fill probably 3/4 of a container with medical supplies, and then we'll add the clothes there," said Dr. Mahlay.
All of these will make their way by boat to Poland and by truck to hospitals in the hard-hit areas of Eastern and Southern Ukraine—the medical equipment for the doctors, the clothes for the patients.
"A lot of the hospitals have displaced people there. They were in an area where the city is just now completely destroyed. They've lost their home, they lost their clothes, they lost everything," said Mahlay. "So you get discharged from the hospital, and you get a set of clothes to keep you warm."
It takes about five to six weeks for the goods to make it to their destination, meaning this particular care package should be arriving right around Christmas.
