The answers come from Comrade Xander, the Representative of the UA branch.
1. Russia has recently launched a war against Ukraine. Such event must have heavily struck Ukraine. May you describe how the event impacts the life of a Ukrainian citizen?
Badly. People are dying, normal life is paralysed. Constant shelling is destroying city and industrial infrastructure, and this night Russians rocketed a tank farm and a nuclear waste repository, almost causing an irreversible ecological catastrophe.
2. How does such situation affect the members or the community operation of the UA branch?
Most of the operations have stopped. Authors and branch staff are either evacuating, hiding in shelters or fighting Russians. Not a lot of room for creative endeavors.
3. We all pray for your saftey wholeheartedly. Please let us know how to support you people.
4. About the funds, may you explain how these money will be used to help Ukraine or the UA branch?
I will answer both question 3 and 4 here.
There are to priority areas one could support Ukrainians right now.
The first one is the political dimension. Please, talk to your politicians and local representatives; advocate for urgent, strict and comprehensive sanctions against the Russian Federation. They will not be able to wage war if they are economically broke and this will foster their civilian anti-war movements. If they refuse to implement sanctions, at least persuade them to send medicine, fuel, protective equipment and ammunition to our fighters.
As Russian propaganda is trying to hide what is happening here, you may help make their lies seen by sharing information from the verified Ukrainian or European sources, like https://www.ukrinform.net/ or BBC Ukraine.The second one is monetary. You can support humanitarian initiatives and Ukrainian armed forces.
A lot of our international colleagues opt to support the Red Cross that helps treating civilians and combatants alike. While we greatly appreciate that, we would much better prefer for our guys not to get wounded at all. So, we recommend donating to the International Charitable Foundation “Come back alive”, which not only helps with medical treatment, but also procures quadcopters, heat/night vision and armour for our troops. Here is the link: https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/
The armed forces can also be directly supported by donating to the special National Bank account: https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi. A lot of detachments have their own donation links, but I will not post them here, for the sake of simplicity – this money will reach them anyway.
5. May you tell us how does the UA branch plan to get through this situation?
We plan to win. A lot of our authors and readers are fighting at the frontlines as we speak. Needless to say, it will provide rich materials for future articles.
6. Do you want to tell the international fellows anything else?
I will answer with a quote. When the people choose bread between bread and freedom, they eventually lose everything, including bread. If the people choose freedom, they will have bread grown by themselves and not taken away by anyone.