‘It’s a country that I love’: Saskatoon nurse rallies to send warmth to Ukraine

WATCH: A Saskatoon nurse is showing her compassion as the Ukraine war grinds on and the winter chill settles in.

A Saskatoon nurse is showing her compassion as the war in Ukraine grinds on and winter intensifies. She’s marking her birthday by rallying her community to help send warmth to Ukrainians one blanket at a time.

Tanya Baran does most of her nursing in Saskatoon but thousands of kilometres away in Ukraine, she has become something more. For a few months each year since 2022, she’s become a lifeline of support for those fighting on the front lines of the ongoing war.

“Being Ukrainian isn’t just, you know, the usual thing where you eat perogies and cabbage rolls. For me, it’s a country that I love. Their roots and the culture and the traditions, the language that all comes with it and is so important to me and to my family,” Baran told CTV News from her apartment in Kyiv.

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Baran has been to Ukraine seven times since the Russian invasion started in February 2022, this time she’s in the capital city until January. She’s the medical lead for Ukrainian Patriot, a grassroots humanitarian relief group that started at the outset of the war.

She’s in Kyiv and experiencing the power blackouts firsthand. She even lost power during our interview.

“Without any warning, everything just turns off. everything goes dark,” she said, once she could reconnect for the interview.

“The hums of generators are constant, that it just becomes like another background noise that we have to listen for. It’s tough times right now.”

Her desire to help is engrained and as her birthday approaches, for a second year in a row she’s asking her Facebook followers to skip the traditional well wishes and instead donate to this cause.

“With Russia hitting Ukraine’s infrastructure and winter fast approaching, it is vital that we get these items there as soon as possible,” said Baran.

Those items are blankets, 23 boxes that are sitting in Saskatoon right now waiting to be shipped. Baran says it may seem simple, but they have become an essential item since heating is unreliable, and power outages are common.

“It makes for some very cold, long days,” she said.

Last year, Baran’s birthday fundraiser garnered about $1,500 which helped send tourniquets and other medical supplies to the front lines.

This year she estimates the shipping of blankets to cost about $7,000 with possible tariff charges added on to the base charge.

Find out more about her fundraiser here.