My name is Maria and I am fundraising for my brother Kostiantyn. I was born in Ukraine, Mariupol. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, my mother was able to escape Mariupol, but my brother Kostiantyn, stayed back to defend our native town.

When our father suddenly passed away several years ago, Kostia’s goal became to finish everything our father did not have a chance to finish. One of the most absolute things our father liked was working on the house we both grew up in. Kostia definitely would make our dad proud… He worked on that house day and night and invested all his time, effort and savings to make it what he thought dad ever wanted. Sometimes, we thought he was going to kill himself by overworking with no breaks, but we left him alone, as it seemed to be his own way of dealing with grief. He just finished all he wanted to do couple months before Russia invaded. House was stunning. Unfortunately, it did not last long and our family home does not exist anymore… It was destroyed completely as a majority of Mariupol.

Knowing my brother and his honorable nature, there was no doubt, he was going to do everything possible to defend his city. He fought hard for it. In March 2022 he received a severe brain injury and was saved by one of the nurses. She took him to Azovstal plant, the last fortress of Mariupol defenders. She took care of him while he was unconscious, gave him medicine in the darkness under constant bombing and she was there for him when he gained consciousness and was having panic attacks from not being able to hear or speak… Unfortunately, she afterwards died in front of his eyes, when a temporary hospital set up in Azovstal plant collapsed during one of the shelling attacks...she left a little boy, as an orphan (the father died in the beginning of the attack). 

In May 2022, the remaining defenders of Azovstal were taken as war prisoners. My brother was one of them. He afterwards spent 7 months in captivity and went through a tremendous amount of torture. 

He was recently freed through a war prisoners swap and he is in the Ukrainian hospital right now. Poor vision, limited hearing ability, excruciating headaches due to brain trauma, poor blood circulation within the brain, affecting brain functionalities such as memory, emotions, body parts functions, inability to sleep. Kidney problems (malfunction of one of the kidneys due to torture), heart problems (due to electric torture), broken ribs, broken breast bone, broken fingers, damaged spine (due to tortures), severe malnutrition and advanced post-traumatic psychological syndrome. 

After the hospital stay, he has to go through mandatory rehabilitation (which includes both physio and mental therapy). My brother is only 33 years old and we believe he can eventually recover from all the injuries. My brother went through a lot, much more than any human can possibly endure, and his recovery will be much more successful if he is in a peaceful environment, not surrounded by sirens and shelling which are constant reminders of everything that happened to him.

The current situation is still extremely dangerous in Ukraine, and we would like very much for him to go through rehabilitation in Canada.

I am reaching out to all of you to help me to collect the funds for my brother’s medical rehabilitation and stay in Canada until he recovers. I am fundraising for the cost of medications and costs not covered by Government such as physical rehabs, mental therapies etc. The total cost of the medical rehabilitation will depend on his progress and medical assessments as he will have a long way to go until full recovery.

He lost everything… and recovering in a safe, peaceful environment with help of Canadian medical professionals and all of us will tremendously elevate his chances of quicker recovery.

And, from both of us, I thank you all in advance for any help you can give us. May 2023 bring us all peace and joy and become a new beginning for those who truly need it.