'Please help us raise funds for Ukraine'
People in Plymouth are tonight urged to come together to help raise funds for the humanitarian relief effort in Ukraine
Last updated 14th Mar 2022
A regular fundraiser tonight starts in Plymouth to help those affected by the invasion of Ukraine, with one of the organisers saying she's growing increasingly worried about a friend who she's lost contact with in Mariupol.
Over the weekend the International Committee of the Red Cross called for immediate safety and access to humanitarian aid for the besieged port city, warning the current situation was a approaching “a worst-case scenario”
The team-based charity quiz will take place at Plymouth's The Roundabout Pub from 8pm-10.30pm, and it's expected to become a regular weekly event.
Co-organiser Olena Bondarenko, 18, who is studying at the University of Plymouth, said: "I was born and raised in Kyiv. I lived there until I was 17 and then I moved to the UK by myself.
"My family, my relatives. my friends are all there back in Kyiv and back in other cities in Ukraine. I'm in contact with most of them but I also have a friend who's in Mauriupol right now and we don't have a contact with her for the last four days at all."
Olena says she wanted to help raise money so she - and the people of Plymouth - could do something positive, after seeing pictures of a plane crashing close to her home and former school.
Vladyslav Fridmo, 18, another Ukranian from Kyiv who is studying at the city's university says his father has been taking his mother and sister to the border - before returning to help fight.
He said: "I'm actually a little bit worried about my dad. There will be no one to corve him to go the basement when it's bombing."
When asked, how he's coping with watching footage from the invasion, he said: "I hope I don't see it (my house) on TV because on TV you can see all the broken houses. I want my house to stay OK. I want to return there one day."
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross has spoken about the situation in Mariupol, saying: "Hundreds of thousands of the city's residents are now facing extreme or total shortages of basic necessities like food, water and medicine. People of all ages, including our staff, are sheltering in unheated basements, risking their lives to make short runs outside for food and water. Dead bodies, of civilians and combatants, remain trapped under the rubble or lying in the open where they fell. Life-changing injuries and chronic, debilitating conditions cannot be treated. The human suffering is simply immense.
"Time is running out for the hundreds of thousands trapped by the fighting. History will look back at what is now happening in Mariupol with horror if no agreement is reached by the sides as quickly as possible."
21 Ukrainian children have arrived in the UK for life-saving treatment.
The health secretary says the cancer patients were flown in from Poland last night and will be treated at hospitals in England.
Meanwhile, a scheme encouraging people to house Ukrainian refugees in their spare rooms for six months launches today.
Ministers hope people could start hosting in a week's time - and those taking part will receive a 350-pounds-a-month 'thank you' from the government.
It's reported a pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity unit in the city of Mariupol last week.
She was photographed being rushed to another hospital where the Associated Press says doctors carried out an emergency C-section, but couldn't save either.
Moscow claims there were no patients in the hospital.
The Kremlin's said to have asked China for military assistance in the war.
According to US media, Washington's warned Beijing against obliging to Russia's request.