Bruce Brown, a volunteer with a humanitarian group called Vancouver Island Supports Ukraine, received a phone call from an unfamiliar voice over the weekend.
The woman on the other end of that call spoke with a British accent and sounded elderly. What she said caught Brown off guard.
“She said that she had lived through the blitz in London during World War 2 and she knows what war is all about,” said Brown.
She wanted to make a donation to the team as they are about to depart next week for their fourth trip to Ukraine, delivering humanitarian aid to the people of that war torn country.
Last Friday, Ukraine’s President Volodymry Zelensky travelled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office – only to be berated by the two U.S. leaders.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people, you’re gambling with World War 3,” said Trump.
“In this entire meeting, have you said thank you?” said Vance.
Ken Christie is the director of humanitarian studies at Royal Roads University. He calls what happened at the White House an ambush in an effort to discredit the Ukrainian president in order to sway support away from Ukraine.
“It’s almost as if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin had been stage directing the entire show,” said Christie. “It’s an embarrassment to the United States, it’s an embarrassment to their politics.”
Christie says what it did accomplish was the complete opposite of what was intended by Zelensky’s hosts – and Brown agrees.
“Since that time we’ve seen a huge ground swell of support from people locally,” said Brown.
Over the weekend, more than $3,000 was donated to the team’s upcoming humanitarian mission.
Bob Beckett will be on that trip once again and says he is hearing from his Ukrainian partners and now dear friends that they are reeling from what transpired in Washington on Friday.
“They’re devastated,” said Beckett. “Which is all the more reason for the free world to come together now and demonstrate our commitment in supporting Ukraine.”
Over the weekend, the superintendent of the Sooke School District, Paul Block, recorded a message to his Ukrainian counterparts that the team will be taking with them next week to Ukraine.
In the video, Block says the district is standing with the Ukrainian students, staff and families and he wants them to know they are not alone. Block is hoping to build on a relationship that has already been created between his school district and ones in Ukraine to create more opportunities for intercultural learning.
“We have to change the perspectives of people so that we understand that humanity is one, that we’re not fighting each other and that we can work together and find ways to build peace.,” said Block.
The district’s Pace Musical Theatre Academy, which raised more than $6,000 for the upcoming humanitarian trip, has signed flags to show it’s support for the children in Ukraine that the team will be delivering next week.
“It’s absolutely critical that we stand with Ukraine now more than ever,” said Beckett.
“I think it just provides hope to them that people do care,” said Brown.
Showing that despite the apparent loss of support from the United States the world and Vancouver Island continues to rally behind Ukraine.
People can support the upcoming trip through the Vancouver Island Supports Ukraine website.
