January 2025
Dear Friends of Ukraine,
Current events can make it hard to feel optimistic about the state of global democracy, so we must seek inspiration wherever we can. In a recent interview, German Peace Prize winning author and historian Anne Applebaum said something worth remembering as we navigate tumultuous times: “Nothing is ever preordained … nothing is ever inevitable, and everything that happens tomorrow depends on what we do today.”
Just like Ukrainian Defenders are preparing today for the unknown tomorrow, the Sunflower Seeds Ukraine community of supporters came together during our 2024 Holiday Giving Campaign (HGC) to ensure we can provide these heroes with essential aid well into 2025. Thanks to the generosity of 370 donors, we not only met but exceeded our $120,000 campaign goal, to fuel our work in the coming months, and provide critical gear to Ukrainian Defenders on the front lines.
Read on to learn more about how your contributions are making a difference, why, as Tacitus said, “A bad peace is even worse than war,” where 1,500 pairs of boots are going, how to volunteer while being a mom of 5 young children, and much more.
What we do matters more than ever! Let’s keep up our work. Together we are stronger!
Natalie, Kyle, Andriy and all of us at
Sunflower Seeds Ukraine
Spread Seeds of Help!
P.S. To read longer versions of our news stories, visit the blog on our website, where you also can learn more about upcoming events and volunteering opportunities.
YOUR DONATIONS AT WORK: DECEMBER 2024
In December 2024, we provided help to 512 Defenders after following up on 531 requests. We distributed 6,378 items, including 4,315 chemical hand and foot warmers. Other delivered items included 182 individual first aid kits (including tourniquets, chest seals, hemostatic bandages); 588 protective equipment items (knee pads, earmuffs, camelbacks); 442 tactical gear items (vests, backpacks, canteens, duffels); 790 uniform components (including tops and bottoms, boots and hats); 61 optical devices and other specialized items. The large quantity of the SFSU-branded hand- and foot-warmers were manufactured in fall as a custom order, and distributed in packs of 5-10 to help Defenders cope with cold winter weather. (You can see one such pack in the photo of a Defender on the left.) Thank you to our generous community of supporters and volunteers, who are keeping supplies flowing where they’re needed.
OPTICS FOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES
During the month of December, we partnered with Volya Radio on X/Twitter for a series of interviews with Ukrainian Defenders in the Alpha unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Alpha is one of the most combat-ready units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces performing missions on the front lines, currently in the Donetsk direction. This region in eastern Ukraine is the most challenging, strategically important, and most threatened part of the front. The proceeds generated by the interview series helped kickstart the Optics for Ukrainian Defenders campaign. Thanks to 134 supporters, thus far we have been able to purchase a dozen long-range scopes and accessories worth almost $10,000. The Alpha special operation forces unit is grateful for receiving gear critical to their missions’ success. You can listen to some of these interviews on Volya’s podcast on Spotify.
TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: RACHEL COHEN
To read more about Rachel’s story, go to our Patreon page, where we post longer profiles of our team members, interviews with defenders, and other exclusive content
Meet Rachel, a fundraising volunteer and former appellate criminal defense attorney based in Lafayette, Colorado. When she heard about Putin’s invasion, the busy mom-of-five felt an urge to help the people of Ukraine in a tangible way, so she flew to Bucharest, Romania, where she spent a week working with Ukrainian refugees. The women and children she met there clung to a deep hope for the safe return of their male relatives defending Ukraine. “Coming back to the U.S. and having their stories in my heart, I wanted to be sure the Defenders whose families I met were supported,” she says.
Rachel, who has an amazing ability to convey Sunflower Seeds Ukraine’s mission, vision and work to our community of supporters, attributes our organization’s ability to make an outsized impact to a unique formula: Native Ukrainians’ local knowledge helps create efficient, nimble distribution lines that deliver what Defenders need; leadership's encouragement of volunteers to leverage their skills in a meaningful way; and a strong sense of “cohesion and joie de vivre” in a community with a common goal. Rachel says, “We connect as volunteers, as donors, as supporters of the people of Ukraine in this organization in a way that can only be described as remarkable.”
FOURTH CONTAINER PACKED AND SHIPPED
In 2024, we shipped four containers full of high-quality gear to Ukraine, the final one in mid-December. A team of 20 volunteers, working in shifts from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., sorted gear by size and type, and then packed 40 pallets full of high-quality, military-grade gear, including 1,500 pairs of brand-new combat boots, 1,000 winter clothing items donated by three companies, 600 backpacks and duffels of different sizes, 200 load-bearing vests, 250 water canteens and Camelbaks, 150 sleeping mats and bags, and other useful tactical gear. As we unboxed, paired and sorted the 1,500 pairs of boots by size, volunteer Ulana Bihun recalled a scene in the movie “Porcelain War” in which a Ukrainian Defender is given a package from an organization like ours; when he opens it, he’s relieved to find a pair of boots inside. Read more about this powerful, award-winning film and its makers in next month’s newsletter.
WHAT WILL A PEACE AGREEMENT LOOK LIKE?
To read more about why any peace with russia is a precarious proposition, visit our blog.
As the war approaches its third year, a renewed focus on peace talks have recaptured public attention. While supporters of Ukraine want to see the violence come to an end, russia’s history of violating peace agreements makes it hard to believe that a path toward lasting peace is possible.
The current invasion of Ukraine is itself in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear defense capabilities in exchange for assurances from russia that its borders and sovereignty would be respected. It took less than two decades for russia to violate this agreement.
Ukraine is understandably wary of any peace agreements that do not come with meaningful security guarantees. Without them, it’s far too likely that russia will treat the peace agreement as a temporary ceasefire and simply attack again once it’s strategically advantageous to do so.
While we must continue to push for peace, we must also consider Ukraine’s unique position in negotiating with an enemy that lacks integrity or a basic consideration of human life.
HELP US SPREAD THE WORD
Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested, or use this form to subscribe or unsubscribe. The web version of this and all previous newsletters is here. For more frequent updates about our work, please like our Facebook page, follow us on Instagram, Twitter/X, and subscribe to our Youtube channel and Patreon page, browse our website for multiple ways to donate, or send us an email if you have any questions.
*Misspelling and lower-casing proper names in this newsletter are intentional and used as signs of disdain and disrespect. Similarly, uppercasing of words such as Defenders are intentional and used as signs of respect and appreciation.
Note: Sunflower Seeds Ukraine raises funds as an initiative of Ukrainians of Colorado, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations and gifts are tax deductible to the full extent allowed under IRS regulations and the U.S. law.
