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As world leaders try to end Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, humanitarians from New Hampshire just back from the conflict zone say the people there do not think the fighting will finish anytime soon.
“Whatever the conversations are, they all say it doesn’t matter unless we have an entirely free and independent Ukraine,” said Susan Mathison, cofounder of Common Man for Ukraine. “They’re not interested in a land swap.”
Mathison and her team arrived in Boston Wednesday night after spending 11 days delivering food and supplies to villages just 8 miles from the front lines.
“Common Man for Ukraine” is a volunteer team in partner with the Plymouth Rotary Foundation, a nonprofit out of New Hampshire. They deliver humanitarian aid by the truckload. That includes food but also trauma counseling, to Ukrainian orphans, displaced children and families struggling to survive the war against Russia.
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“We hear air raid sirens,” said Mathison. “We know about the drones overhead.”
They know their lives are at risk every time they go and that they could be a target.
“Everything we have in those trucks is a hot commodity in Ukraine,” she said. “Sleeping bags, generators, food. That could get into the wrong hands and go into the black market.”
After volunteers spent the past week delivering aid to the war-torn country, humanitarians from New Hampshire-based Common Man for Ukraine are back in the U.S.
The organization raises funds and sends money to Ukraine throughout the year, but often goes in person to monitor that it’s all going to the right places.
On this trip alone, 46,000 pounds of food was delivered.
“It’s very important that we know what Ukrainians need, when they need it, and we’re providing the right things,” she said.
This was the group’s 13th trip to Ukraine since 2022. They’ve got a 14th planned in December.
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Michael Rosenfield
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