Simply over a month in the past, the each day uniform for a lot of Ukrainians was road garments or enterprise fits. However after Russia's invasion, they turned troopers for a voluntary military — a military desperately in want of drugs.
Enter Spirit of America, a Virginia nonprofit that works hand-in-hand with the U.S. army to offer non-lethal help to army companions — the one charity authorized by the Pentagon to take action.
"We see the photographs of the 18 12 months olds who had their skateboarding knee pads and elbow pads on, and so they're volunteering to go," Colleen Denny, who helps coordinate the help in Poland, advised CBS Information.
Terrell Chandler, who's working alongside Denny, mentioned the gear is "endlessly" wanted.
"It is hundreds and hundreds of individuals which can be asking, all of the civilians which have joined the combating, you realize, turn into troopers in a single day," Chandler advised CBS Information. "They're asking for this gear to succeed."
Chandler mentioned physique armor and helmets are wanted probably the most.
Earlier than it heads to Ukraine, the gear is saved in a Virginia Seashore warehouse. First help kits, protecting physique armor and different gadgets are packed up in containers, and people containers then fill each seat of a Boeing 767 that flies to the area.
"You may in all probability not discover anyone else the place an plane leaves america and the soldiers have that tools on their physique in that very same day," Wayne Zinn, Spirit of America's chief of worldwide operations, advised CBS Information.
As of this week, the nonprofit has helped outfit greater than 3,200 troopers. The help is value $7.2 million.
Based in 2003, Spirit of America has labored in additional than 90 nations and everybody on the sector workforce is a veteran.
"That is our approach to, to help those that are nonetheless carrying the uniform for the U.S. army," Denny mentioned. "So although we're not in uniform, we will nonetheless help those that are."