Supporting soldiers with flowers

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, July 14th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. A couple months ago many of our team spent two weeks in Sioux Center, Iowa, on the campus of Dordt University teaching at the WORLD Journalism Institute.

We had 12 students in our broadcast track during the second week of the program. We worked with each of them on either a podcast or video story.

BROWN: One of those students was Anna Mandin. She’s a senior at University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During WJI she had three different podcast stories fall apart on her. Everything from interviewees who changed their minds—to discovering a story wasn’t really a story after digging a little deeper. So we gave her an opportunity to return home, find a story, and submit it for consideration. That’s what we have for you next.

BUTLER: Last month, the United States Department of Defense announced that it would provide an additional $1 billion in security assistance for the war in Ukraine. Direct US military-related spending on the war has now topped eight billion dollars.

BROWN: Even so, some Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines lack basic equipment. WJI graduate Anna Mandin met an Ukrainian student studying in Canada who is doing her part to support the war effort. Here’s Anna.

ANNA MANDIN, REPORTER: On May 4th, 2022, twenty-year-old Anastasiia Kutulska boarded a plane for Warsaw, Poland. It was the beginning of her 4000 mile-long trip from Canada to bring her thirteen year old brother back from Ukraine. Along with a bag full of gifts for her family, she brought a camouflage tactical backpack.

Between Warsaw and Kyiv, Kutulska had to take several trains. As she walked, the friction of the backpack on her shoulder in the hot sun left a permanent mark. Kutulska met her dad in a bomb shelter near the Kyiv train station. The two of them drove 50 miles to her home in Bila Tserkva.

As she traveled, the skies above were silent.

KUTULSKA: If something flies over Ukraine, it will be shot. So there were no planes flying there.

Kutulska’s father can’t leave the country due to wartime restrictions. So, Kutulska agreed to bring her brother to live with her in Halifax, Canada where she studies chemistry and biochemistry at university.

The last few months have been challenging for Kutulska. Daily news from home is unsettling.

VIDEO CLIP: [President Zelensky speaking in Ukrainian]

On March 5th, bombs dropped on Bila Tserkva. Kutulska was in Canada, finishing her winter semester.

KUTULSKA: Literally my friends and like my family, like wake up from explosions and don't know if they will survive the night or the day. And I'm just here like laying in bed and in peace … I wanted to like, feel that, like have the war be an actual part of my life, not just look at it like a movie or on TV, or like read news.

Before heading to Ukraine, Kutulska bought three camouflage tactical vests, three military uniforms, some med kits and a large backpack.

AUDIO: [OLEG DESCRIBING THE EQUIPMENT IN UKRAINIAN]

Her dad’s friend Oleg volunteers on the frontlines in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya—300 miles southeast from Bila Tserkva. He sent her a list of needed equipment. She bought the supplies she could at a local surplus navy store.

She raised money by crocheting and selling two-inch wide yellow and blue flowers around her university. She got the idea in early March. She was trying to think of ways to support the war when she remembered a crocheted flower a friend made for her. She decided to learn how to make the flowers herself. Her friend agreed to teach her.

KUTULSKA: It wasn’t difficult, and it was like comforting, I guess.

She put up posters around campus and charged $2.30 per flower.

The first day, a woman messaged her asking for 10 flowers. By the time she left for Ukraine, she had raised over $570.

KUTULSKA: I was feeling like I’m actually doing something helpful for my country.

Tucked in her bag as she traveled to Ukraine was yarn for more flowers—though these were for Ukrainian soldiers.

KUTULSKA: That made every one of them smile, every one who I gave the flowers to…Those were probably some of the most sincere smiles I’ve seen in my life… It’s literally just like a bunch of yarn, tied into a flower, but it looked like it meant so much to them, when I gave it to them. That’s one of the things that also keeps me going still.

Kutulska couldn’t personally deliver the military equipment, but she talked to her father’s friend by phone.

KUTULSKA: There was a lot of pain in his voice and he just wouldn't stop talking about like all the horrors that he saw and how they're like, just like young boys laying dead because they didn't have any, like proper protection gear or anything.

Kutulska hopes her equipment will prevent deaths like that.

Knowing that she is helping her country has helped Kutulska with her long term anxiety and depression. She is keenly aware that her country needs a lot more assistance than she can give, but she’s glad to do what she can.

KUTULSKA: The war gave me a lot of purpose.

AUDIO: [KUTULSKA TALKING IN UKRAINIAN TO HER LITTLE BROTHER]

Now back in Canada, Kutulska is the sole guardian of her brother. She’s working two jobs to cover the increased expenses and trying to save for her fourth year tuition.

But she also has her flowers. So far she’s sold about 200 of them. Most students have gone home for the summer, but Kutulska hopes the orders will keep coming in. She plans to sell the flowers until the war ends.

KUTULSKA: Life is hard, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. I think hardships make you who you are and it’s important to not give up, and keep fighting for whatever you think needs fighting for.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Mandin in Halifax, Canada.

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