How to help Ukraine

You can't. But you also can. See below.

Dear friends,

We all want to “do something” for Ukraine. It’s sort of embarrassing to be this helpless, watching this carnage from afar. But the things Ukraine needs — tanks, missiles, a friendly air force — are not things that most of us can provide.

Meanwhile, life goes on. Ukrainians are making dinner, watching Netflix, starting school. Everything is on hold, but everything goes on — because it has to.

Unfortunately, “life goes on” also means the routine ugly bits. Not the missiles or the mass graves. But the routine uglinesses that doesn’t stop for great events. And one of those is illness.

A while ago, I became friendly on Instagram with a Ukrainian reader named Misha. He loved Susan Sontag and Clarice Lispector: he was, in other words, the kind of reader that any writer loves. And he loves his blind dog.

When the war broke out, he was “lucky” to live in Poltava, which is between Kyiv and the eastern and southern regions where most of the fighting is taking place. It’s not the worst-hit area of Ukraine. But “lucky” is in quotes because it’s not especially great to live in a place where the economy has collapsed, where the air-raid sirens are always blaring, where thousands of people are fighting, and where hundreds of people you know — from school, from the neighborhood — have already been blown to bits.

And then: a routine ugliness. There’s never a good time for a cancer diagnosis, but it’s especially grim in the middle of a war. And a cancer diagnosis is what Misha’s mother Iryna got a few weeks ago. Her cancer is treatable, and she’s already started chemotherapy.

But it’s expensive, and she needs another $5000. It might not be that much money in normal times, but in the economic situation of Ukraine these days, it’s a fortune, and impossible for Misha and Iryna’s family to raise.

So I’m turning to you, friends. If you’re lucky enough to live in a country that is not being attacked by Vladimir Putin, will you send them a bit of money? Fifty dollars if you can afford it (you can). Five hundred if you are feeling generous. Feel generous!

There’s a PayPal account at mich999gonch@gmail.com. It will take you half a minute to help them.

Because it’s true: you can’t do anything for Ukraine. But you can do something for this one Ukrainian family. I urge you to do what you can.

With thanks and warmest wishes,

B.