West Hollywood bar answers Ukraine's plea for help with fundraiser event
Music was playing and Ukrainian flags were flying at The Abbey in West Hollywood Thursday night as supporters answered President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for help exactly one month after the war began.
"Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and your universities," he said. "Come in the name of peace."
Zelenskyy made his passionate plea to the world on Wednesday asking that everyone mark the war's one-month anniversary as a day of action.
"We should help them because they are dying every day, every hour," said Anastasia Chuba, who is from Kyiv.
As she goes to this fundraiser with her four-year-old daughter, she worries for her family left behind in Ukraine's capital.
"I woke up at 5 o'clock, 24 of February, in my bed because of explosions," she said. "I was shocked I don't know how to explain this feeling."
She and her family hid in a basement for 10 days until a friend helped fly Chuba and her daughter to the United States. While Chuba and her daughter fled to America, the rest of her family stayed in Ukraine, including her father who decided to stay and fight against the Russian army. Her daughter always when they can go home to Kyiv.
"She always asks me to go home to see her father," Chuba said as she began to cry. "It's hard."
Others at the fundraiser like Marietta Volynska knew the importance to raise money for humanitarian aid being sent to Ukraine and the millions of refugees fleeing the violence.
"My dad's factory got bombed," she said. "I flew here so I can make money and now send it to Israel."
While she was able to evacuate her mother to Israel just a few days ago, she can't help but look at the photo of her family members forced to flee their homes.
As this war enters its second month and as the casualties continue to mount, these women can only hope that the violence will soon come to an end.
