Tamara Brazhko has been putting on a brave face, but every day she finds herself breaking down in tears.

Weighing heavy on the Smith-Jackson School teacher’s heart is the war raging in her homeland of Ukraine and the danger it poses to her friends and family in the country.

Brazhko’s brother Yevgen Grizhymalskiy, his wife Tetiana and baby daughter Elizabeth live in Kyiv.

For the first eight days of the conflict the family was separated as Yevgen is a doctor at Leleka maternity hospital in the northern part of the city, while Tetiana and Elizabeth were holed up in the cellar of an apartment building in the city centre.

As of last Friday, however, Tetiana and Elizabeth were evacuated from Kyiv and were staying with Brazhko’s parents in Vinnytsia, a city in west-central Ukraine and preparing to head to western Ukraine as soon as possible.

The family could not be together in the beginning, Brazhko said, given the proximity of the Russian army to the hospital.

“The hospital is located very close to a military airport. The Russian army wants to take this military airport, it’s kind of like their strategy, because when you have this military airport you can communicate with other military bases,” said Brazhko, who has been in Canada for eight years and teaching in Dauphin for three. “It’s like a few kilometers from the hospital. There are a lot of Russian tanks there and every day and night there are air strikes. They are kind of like surrounded and there is no way to escape or to leave the hospital. Nobody leaves the hospital, only wounded people arrive.”

The wounded soldiers and civilians are adding to the workload at the busy hospital, Brazhko said, as they were already dealing with numerous pregnancies, women in labour and newborn children, some of whom are sick and in critical condition.

“And when it’s a very strong airstrike, they take all the patients and the staff, they go to the basement, but it’s not enough, no. It’s basement, it’s not like the hospital,” she said, adding staff at the hospital have been given weapons to protect themselves. “I mean there is not enough equipment to treat people in the basement. There are some newborn kids in critical condition and some pregnant women, the staff have to do c-sections, a lot of c-sections.”

One of the greatest challenges facing the hospital is securing money and supplies to ensure they can keep operating as the conflict progresses.

“The hospital is in a critical financial situation. They need money to support the hospital staff and all patients and humanitarian aid,” Brazhko said. “For now they have food and everything, but they predict that soon they will not have anything.”

Yevgen forwarded a plea for assistance from the hospital manager to Brazhko in the hopes people would be moved by their plight and provide assistance.

The message reads: “Dear international colleagues,

As you know Russia started war against Ukraine, Ukraine is in a very tough situation right now.

Russian military attacks dozens of cities, killing thousands of people. They destroy military bases, airports, houses, hospitals, kindergartens and so on. Millions of people had to move to another cities, millions of people sitting in shelters.

Meanwhile the only JCI-accredited hospital in Ukraine - Maternity Hospital Leleka - continues to provide obstetric and gynecological care. Also as located on the outskirts of Kyiv, we found out that for thousands of people living nearby there is no place for the health care services besides us. And also we are located very close to the places where the Russian army tries to enter Kyiv, so we provide care to wounded soldiers and local people. At this time almost 50 people of the personnel are constantly living in Leleka Hospital providing care for its patients, local citizens and wounded people from the Russian aggression. And also we do all we can to cook food to our army.

We kindly ask you to help us with financing our efforts, because currently we are in a very tough financial situation.

Brazhko is confident the hospital will receive assistance through the Red Cross and other organizations. Donating is important, she said, as the situation is dire throughout the country

Brazhko is in touch with volunteers in Winnipeg who formed the group Aid For Ukraine and are collecting money and humanitarian supplies to send to Ukraine.

The group has an account set up with Carpathia Credit Union (CCU) in Winnipeg and anyone wanting to make a donation can do so at any branch using the account number 110180161496. Donors can also transfer funds to the CCU account from their own financial institution. For those wanting to etransfer funds, the email address associated with the account is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Use the answer “Ukraine”.

“And they collect diapers and different food for kids like baby food and some medicine,” she said, adding she would like to set up a depot to accept donations locally. “We can collect, maybe, some diapers or medicine or some food or clothes. They also asking us to help and we can send everything to them.”

Providing assistance is one thing people can do, but there is more that can be done, she said, such as lobbying for a no-fly zone over the country and for humanitarian corridors to allow for the evacuation of innocent civilians.

Everything that can be done needs to be done, Brazhko said, as the country is in ruins. She has been in contact with friends in Kharkiv, which was the Ukrainian capital from 1919 to 1934, and the pictures they send are devasting.

“It’s a big beautiful, very beautiful city and right now it’s almost nothing. It’s almostflat as they bomb hospitals, schools, daycares,” she said, adding the biggest nuclear power plant in the Zaporizhia region was on fire recently as a result of a Russian tank bombardment, putting the entire continent at risk.

“Putin is really dangerous to all people, not only to Ukrainian people. Sure it is the first country, but nothing can stop him.”