What if today, on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, you could save a child’s life?
From June 4-6, each donation to our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Temerty Foundation, up to $100,000—doubling your impact for Ukraine’s vulnerable children.
Sixteen-year-old Dmytro became an orphan when Russian forces tortured his father to death in the Kherson region. Occupiers abducted his father twice, beating him and subjecting him to electric shocks in a basement. They forced him to dig his own grave while mocking him. After extensive brain trauma from the torture, Dmytro’s father died at age 42. All alone, under occupation and being split by the front line from the rest of his family, his aunt on the Ukrainian-controlled territory reached out to Save Ukraine.
Through donor-supported rescue efforts funded by the generosity of Canadians, Dmytro is safe after a complex evacuation operation to bring him out of occupation. Now, Dmytro is going through rehabilitation to overcome the trauma caused by Russia’s brutal aggression.
Photo credit: Save Ukraine
Since Russia’s war began, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly abducted. Through our partnership with Save Ukraine and the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, we have already rescued 12 children and provided hundreds more with rehabilitation.
Save Ukraine leads courageous rescue missions, each carefully planned with absolute discretion. Young survivors receive comprehensive support to heal and rebuild their lives.
“Through our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, we’re helping restore what was stolen—family, identity, and the right to grow up in peace,” says Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz, Chair of the Civil Society Committee at the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. “With the Temerty Foundation’s support, your donation will go twice as far.”
For the next 72 hours, your generosity has double the power. When you donate before midnight June 6, every $50 becomes $100, and every $100 becomes $200 of life-saving support.
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
In Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, children are being systematically stripped of their identities, forced into military training, and psychologically manipulated to forget they are Ukrainian—which is exactly why our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign exists.
Maria, 17 years old, faced her nightmare when Russian soldiers from the National Guard stormed into her classroom, assault rifles in hand. “Try, show what you know,” they commanded, forcing Maria and her classmates to assemble and disassemble the very weapons being used to destroy their homeland. The soldiers informed them that any of them could be drafted and sent to war.
Photo credit: Save Ukraine
What followed was a relentless campaign to erase Maria’s identity. Seven times a month, mandatory militarization sessions were led by Russian soldiers to train Ukrainian children. Propaganda videos, military rations, forced songs praising Russia—this became daily life. Even first-graders were enlisted into their “Youth Army” program, being filmed during ceremonies and made to salute a future they hadn’t chosen.
Maria witnessed how manipulation worked. One of her classmates was deceived into signing a military contract at 16. His fate remains unknown. When Maria dared to plan her escape, Russian authorities interrogated her and threatened her family.
Thanks to Save Ukraine’s rescue network—supported by donors like you—Maria is now safe. Using discreet communication channels and a complex, clandestine network, Save Ukraine coordinated her evacuation from occupation. Now, Maria’s trauma has given rise to a powerful purpose: she dreams of studying law to defend human rights.
Through our partnership with Save Ukraine and the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, we have already helped rescue 12 children from Russian captivity. But thousands are still waiting. Approximately 19,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia since 2022. When you donate before June 23, you fund more rescue operations, trauma care, and the chance for children to reclaim their future.
Help us turn fear into strength. Help more children like Maria not only survive—but rise.
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
This past weekend, Russia launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing at least three innocent children. Russia has stolen a future from these innocent children who had their whole life ahead of them. Throughout this brutal war, we repeatedly see how Russia targets Ukrainian children, either through abduction or by conducting missile attacks on infrastructure that provides lifesaving support to children taking their first steps towards their future.
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (X)
Two-year-old Viktoriia took her first steps not at home into her mother’s arms, but in the oncology ward of Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has cancer. For eight months, this tiny warrior has called the Ohmatdyt home, enduring nine rounds of chemotherapy and 28 days of radiation. Six more months of treatment lie ahead.
In those sterile halls where children shouldn’t have to learn to walk, Viktoriia also spoke her first words, made her first friends, and took those precious first steps. Last year, Russian bombs deliberately targeted Ohmatdyt, the very place where children like Victoriia fight for their lives. They attacked hope itself. Yet Ohmatdyt rebuilt. The doctors returned. And the children continue their battles.
Photo credit: Tabletochki CF (LinkedIn)
Thanks to your support, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, through the CUF-UCC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and with the help of Tabletochki Foundation, provided essential medical supplies for 155 children at Ohmatdyt, including Viktoriia. Your generosity helped keep their treatments going. Every IV line, every medication, every piece of equipment funded by donors like you becomes a lifeline for children who should be playing in parks, not fighting for survival in hospital wards.
Ukrainian children face battles on many fronts —some rescued from captivity, others fighting cancer. Every one of them deserves a chance.
Viktoriia’s tiny steps represent the courage of all Ukrainian children refusing to give up. When you give to this campaign, you don’t just fund rescue operations—you help ensure hospitals like Ohmatdyt can continue saving lives. You help children like Viktoriia focus on walking forward, instead of worrying if help will come. Every child deserves to take their first steps in safety. Every child deserves a future filled with hope instead of fear.
Our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign runs until June 23rd. Will you help support essential lifesaving programs for children like Viktoriia—and thousands of other Ukrainian children?
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
Every Child Deserves a Future campaign—running until June 23rd—exists to change the lives of Ukrainian children and adolescents abducted by Russia. With your support and through strategic partnerships, we are funding rescue missions, providing medical and psychological care, and rehabilitation to teens like Denys.
Photo credit: Save Ukraine
At 16, Denys was living in Kherson, managing type 1 diabetes and being highly insulin-dependent, when Russian soldiers took him and his classmates to a so-called “recreational camp” in Crimea. There, his life-sustaining insulin needs were ignored. He was hospitalized for weeks in critical condition, then moved again—alone, afraid, and far from his family.
Desperate, Denys courageously reached out to our partner, Save Ukraine, through their website. Thanks to donor-funded rescue efforts facilitated through the robust lifesaving network beyond enemy lines, Denys was identified, located, and brought to safety and hospitalized immediately. Today, Denys lives at the Center for Hope and Recovery, receiving the care, stability, and support every child deserves.
Since 2022, an estimated 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcefully abducted by Russia. Many more live under occupation, separated from their families. Thanks to our partnership with Save Ukraine, founded by Mykola Kuleba, former Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Ukraine, as well as the Temerty Foundation’s generosity, we’ve funded rescue missions to bring 12 children home from Russian captivity.
Since 2014, Save Ukraine has rescued families from frontline areas, and since 2022, has led daring missions to retrieve children from occupied territories and Russia itself. Their work turns impossible situations into powerful stories of reunion and recovery.
Denys survived because someone like you cared enough to act.
Now, others like him need the same chance.
Help us bring more children home. Donate to Every Child Deserves a Future before June 23rd. Because behind every number is a child—with dreams, potential, and the right to live free and safe.
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
In the heart of Ukraine’s ongoing crisis, there exists a place whose name embodies its mission: Misto Dobra—the City of Goodness. This sanctuary represents exactly what your support of our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign makes possible: a haven where vulnerable children and their mothers find safety, healing, and hope amid unimaginable circumstances. Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine has left countless families without homes, stability, or access to essential services.
Through our partnership with Misto Dobra, your generosity created a lifeline for 325 individuals this past winter, including mothers with children who lost everything in the war, orphaned children, and children battling severe illnesses who require specialized care.
The winter months brought particular challenges, with power outages threatening the continuity of critical medical services for children with severe diagnoses. Your support allowed the shelter to pay their power bills and purchase enough diesel to keep generators running, maintaining heat, electricity, and the operation of Misto Dobra’s medical center during the coldest days.
With your generosity, their medical team managed to procure vital medicines for the children in rehabilitation and palliative care. They were able to purchase essential nutritious foods—meats, cheeses, grains, vegetables, and fruits—providing balanced meals for families during their most vulnerable time. The shelter’s team secured hygiene supplies including toilet paper, towels, wet wipes, garbage bags, laundry detergent, and adult diapers, ensuring dignity and cleanliness for families rebuilding their lives. Beyond the physical necessities of medicine, food, and hygiene supplies, your contributions provided something equally vital: the assurance that these children and their families have not been forgotten.
Your donation to our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, running until June 23rd, strengthens these sanctuaries and extends their reach. It ensures that when a child arrives—whether returning from forced displacement in Russia or fleeing violence within Ukraine—they enter a space where healing can begin, and dreams can gradually be rekindled.
Will you stand with Ukraine’s children today by making a donation?
Your support transforms uncertainty into security, trauma into healing, and despair into hope—one child at a time.
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
The Canada-Ukraine Foundation invites you to join our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, running through June 23rd, with the support of Chantal Kreviazuk, an Indigenous and Canadian-Ukrainian singer-songwriter. Together, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive support to Ukrainian children impacted by Russia’s violent war and forced abductions, including psychological care and specialized rescue efforts. Each child has a story, a family who misses them, and a cultural heritage that deserves to be preserved. These innocent children face systematic attempts by Russia to erase their Ukrainian identity, language, and culture.
For these children, each day away from home means time lost with loved ones and a disconnection from their roots. They find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, often pressured to forget their language, traditions, and even their names. Behind each statistic is a child whose childhood has been interrupted—a reality that Chantal understands through a uniquely personal lens: “My Métis grandmother was guarded about her family’s heritage due to the history of scooping children with Indigenous backgrounds.”
Through our partnership with Save Ukraine, the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, and the compassion of supporters like you, we’ve been able to help rescue 12 children from Russian captivity, bringing them back to their families in Ukraine. Hundreds more children have received rehabilitation support through our programs, beginning their journey of healing and cultural reconnection. Thousands are still waiting to come home, hoping that someone still remembers them.
Your contribution to our campaign helps fund the delicate work of locating and bringing children home, as well as other essential services to support the young children who have witnessed the horrors of this invasion. Your generosity helps provide reintegration assistance as they rebuild their sense of identity and belonging. It supports the psychological care these children need after experiencing heavy trauma. These services create a foundation for healing. When a child returns to Ukraine, they reclaim not just their physical home, but their sense of self and belonging. In Chantal’s words, “A donation to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation will help rescue these children and give them a chance to succeed. Because every child deserves a safe future.”
Will you help write a chapter of healing in a child’s life?
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
The Canada-Ukraine Foundation invites you to join our Every Child Deserves A Future campaign — a powerful opportunity to make a real difference in children’s lives. As we continue this vital initiative, we are proud to introduce our partner in this mission, Mykola Kuleba of Save Ukraine. Mykola Kuleba has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to protecting the rights of children in Ukraine.
Since 2014, Save Ukraine has been rescuing families from frontline areas — often preventing occupation by helping people evacuate in time.
Since 2022, the team of Save Ukraine have been leading courageous missions to rescue children and their families from Russian-occupied territories and from Russia itself. The team works tirelessly on the ground, facing tremendous challenges to reunite families torn apart by war. Through your generous support, complemented by the Temerty Foundation, we have helped rescue 12 Ukrainian children who have not only been safely brought home but have begun their journey of recovery and reintegration.
The reality these children have faced is unimaginable. They have endured years under occupation: interrogations, threats, forced Russification, military training in schools, coerced service in the enemy’s army, and the constant fear of being drafted or taken to Russian institutions. Many were targeted specifically for their pro-Ukrainian stance. Some lost their parents, others their homes, freedom, and childhood. They have witnessed the brutality of war firsthand and carry these experiences with them.
Hundreds of thousands of children remain trapped in occupied territories and Russia. The Save Ukraine team is ready to bring them home — but they need our continued support to make these rescue missions possible. Your donation to our campaign provides the resources needed for rescue operations, psychological support, reintegration programs, and other essential services that help children build a future, free from fear. Canada has always been a reliable partner in supporting Ukraine through its darkest hours.
Together, we can do more for the future of these children!
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is proud to announce our new campaign, Every Child Deserves A Future, running from May 6th through June 23rd, dedicated to providing comprehensive support to Ukrainian children impacted by Russia’s violent war and forced abductions, including psychological care and specialized rescue efforts. Each of these children has been torn from their families, their communities, and everything they know—subjected to systematic attempts to erase their Ukrainian identity, language, and culture.
We have witnessed remarkable success through our vital partnership with Save Ukraine. Together, through your generosity and the support of the Temerty Foundation, we have funded rescue missions of 12 children from Russian captivity. We have watched as their eyes regain hope upon returning to the embrace of loved ones. Additionally, hundreds more children have received comprehensive rehabilitation services, helping them begin the long journey of healing from profound trauma. Yet thousands remain in captivity, waiting for someone to remember them—waiting for someone like you to help bring them home.
Every child deserves safety.
Every child deserves love.
Every child deserves a future.
Together, we can make this fundamental right a reality for Ukraine’s most vulnerable children. The forced deportation of children is recognized as an act of genocide under international law. Your support of this campaign is not only humanitarian aid—it is a powerful statement that the world condemns Russia’s actions.
Your contribution to Every Child Deserves A Future will directly fund rescue operations conducted by specialized teams, psychological rehabilitation programs for traumatized children, reintegration support to help rebuild their lives, and other essential programs for Ukrainian children. When a child returns to Ukraine, it is not merely a homecoming—it is the reclamation of their identity, their heritage, and their rightful future.
The abduction of children represents one of the gravest violations of human rights. By supporting this campaign between May 6th and June 23rd, you stand on the right side of history, taking concrete action against an injustice that must not be allowed to continue in silence.
Will you help write a story of homecoming, healing, and hope for a child waiting to return to Ukraine?
Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.
In the depths of this past winter, we asked you to stand with those fighting battles beyond the frontlines in Ukraine. Today, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, we share the extraordinary results of your compassion: together, we have raised an astounding $2.5 million for the mental health and rehabilitation of Ukraine’s brave defenders.
This remarkable achievement stands as a testament to the enduring bond between Canada and Ukraine—a connection woven not just through history and heritage but through shared values of courage, resilience, and the unwavering belief that even in humanity’s darkest hours, we must stand together. Your response to our call was nothing short of astonishing. We extend our profound gratitude to the Myhal Family Foundation, whose incredible matching pledge of $1 million became the cornerstone of this campaign’s success. Their commitment to doubling every donation ignited a wave of generosity that will ripple through countless lives.
We are deeply grateful to the Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation, the Edmonton Community Foundation, Mrs. Kyle MacDonald and Mr. John Franklin, and an Anonymous supporter for their significant contributions to the campaign. To every Canadian who chose to stand with Ukrainian people, no matter your donation amount—we offer our heartfelt thanks.
We are pleased to announce the winners of our raffle for “Shake Hands with the Devil”: Patricia from Winnipeg has won the English copy, and Marie-Mai from Gatineau has won the French edition of General Romeo Dallaire’s powerful memoir. Like Dallaire himself, this book stands as a powerful reminder that bearing witness to suffering is the first step toward healing, both for individuals and nations.
Stay tuned as we share with you updates on projects which provide essential mental health support and essential support to Ukrainians who need it the most.
CUF-UCC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has been established jointly by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) to formalize a coordinated approach in providing humanitarian assistance quickly and efficiently to those in need in Ukraine to address any further aggression by Russia. The main efforts of cooperation are to provide humanitarian relief in the areas of assistance to displaced persons, medical care, emergency shelter and food security.
Many in the Western democracies, in Canada and in the United States in particular, believe that the invasion of Ukraine is none of our business. It’s a regional fight. We should stay out of it. After all, the combatants are far away, too far to touch us.
Isolationism has always been a strong part of the U.S. political tradition. Read about the America First movement before the Second World War: It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump employed the slogan in his runs for the presidency. Vice-President J.D. Vance’s chilling statement that he “could care less about what happens to Ukraine” is part of that “hear no evil, see no evil” tradition. Remember how Trump and Vance humiliated Volodymyr Zelenskyy on live television. Vladimir Putin was reportedly thrilled. It’s no wonder that Ukraine and its friends no longer rely on the United States to do the right thing.
The danger is to forget history’s lessons. To ignore what is going on “over there” can blind us to how those seemingly distant battles will one day infect the world we live in. To ignore what is happening in Ukraine is tantamount to giving Putin the green light. It sends the message that we will not try to stop you. Do what you want, wherever you want, but just don’t bother us and we’ll leave you alone, never believing that the bully we appease may soon turn on us. History has shown that totalitarian beasts have big appetites. One successful invasion can lead to another, and another, toppling free, independent states like dominoes, while destroying countless innocent lives.
In the 1930s much of the West ignored Japanese imperial ambitions, despite knowledge of horrific war crimes taking places in places such as Nanking. Many isolationists in the United States thought this was not their battle. That changed, of course, on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, shooting bullets made with American scrap metal. In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain, the great British appeaser, thought he had created “peace in our time” by allowing Hitler to annex the region of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. The Nazi rallying cry, “Today Germany, tomorrow the world,” was well known to most every clear-eyed observer. The intentions of the Nazis could not have been stated more clearly.
Chamberlain was convinced that with the Munich Agreement, which he waved triumphantly on his return to Britain, Hitler’s territorial ambitions had been satisfied. He said Hitler could be trusted. Less than a year later, the Nazis swallowed up the rest of Czechoslovakia. Imagine what the world would have looked like if he said to Hitler: No more!
“The European history of the 20th Century shows us that societies can break, democracies and fall, ethics can collapse and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands,” historian Timothy Snyder states bluntly in his must-read book, On Tyranny. Snyder points to Russia’s current desire to reorder the world to its own amoral designs. After all, it’s not that long ago that the U.S.S.R put half of Europe behind a fence and made sure the right leaders were put in place to prevent rebellion. Putin has said that one of the great tragedies of the 20th century was the breakup of the Soviet empire.
What a thing to be nostalgic for.
“The Russian oligarchy established after the 1990 election continues to function and promotes a foreign policy designed to destroy democracy elsewhere,” Snyder notes. In a sense, the Russia of today has embraced the methods of Stalin and Hitler: the jailing and killing of anyone who publicly disagrees with the state. Worse still, the desire to force its will on innocent countries using extreme violence. Both tyrants created death squads to terrorize civilian populations. “After Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, Russian introduced terror management into his foreign policy,” Snyder writes. “In its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 Russia transformed units of its regular army into a terrorist force, removing insignia from uniforms and denying all responsibility for the dreadful suffering inflicted.”
Just look at what happened to the once-beautiful Ukrainian city of Mariupol. A Human Rights Watch investigation found a city pulverized into dust, including hospitals, schools and necessary electricity and water infrastructure. “The Russian assault on Mariupol in 2022 left thousands of civilians dead and injured including many in apparently unlawful attacks,” the report says. “Russian forces’ devastation of Mariupol continued efforts to erase Ukrainian culture …”
The horror was not limited to a single city. In Our Enemies Will Vanish, Ukrainian writer and Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov describes what happened in Bucha. Before it was attacked by the Russians in 2022, it was a comfortable town nicknamed “little Switzerland.” Russia put an end to that. After Ukrainian soldiers pushed the Russians out, they found a scene from hell. Men with their arms tied behind their backs, executed with bullets to the back of the head. Visible signs of torture with the eyes of victims gouged out. “Dozens of bodies lay rotting under the rain on Yablunska Street at the entrance to Bucha and in surrounding areas. One man had been shot as he tried to ferry some food, a bag of potatoes and an empty bottle of Coke still lying at his feet,” Trofimov reports. “An elderly woman sprawled next to her bicycle down the road. A tiger-patterned jacked covered the head of a man who had gone to walk his dog.”
Hitler and Stalin showed the world what they were capable of, yet many covered their eyes — it was all fake news, it was propaganda. Today Russia is making it clear what it can, and will, do. Think about what is happening in Ukraine as a contagion, with Ukraine valiantly trying its best to hold back Russian aggression from the rest of the world.
Ukrainians are fighting not just for their own land but for all countries that cherish freedom. As the violence escalates daily, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is working tirelessly on the ground to minimize the devastating impact on civilians. Our teams are delivering critical humanitarian aid—medical supplies, food, shelter materials, and trauma support—to the most vulnerable communities ravaged by Russian attacks. Every day, we witness both heartbreaking destruction and remarkable resilience. The humanitarian crisis grows more dire with each passing week, with millions displaced and essential infrastructure deliberately targeted. We cannot stand idle while these atrocities continue. To defend Ukraine is to defend democracy itself. Please donate today to the CUF-UCC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and help us provide lifesaving assistance to those who need it most. Your contribution, no matter the size, makes a profound difference in this crucial fight for freedom and human dignity.
CUF-UCC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has been established jointly by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) to formalize a coordinated approach in providing humanitarian assistance quickly and efficiently to those in need in Ukraine to address any further aggression by Russia. The main efforts of cooperation are to provide humanitarian relief in the areas of assistance to displaced persons, medical care, emergency shelter and food security.
Charles Lewis is a veteran reporter and editor for such papers as the Ottawa Citizen and National Post. He flies a Ukrainian flag at his Toronto home in honour of his Ukrainian grandfather Joseph, who fled the Russians in the 1920s. Lewis is now retired and writes mainly for the Catholic press
