In 2022 I launched the Direct-Aid initiative, which let donors send help instantly to displaced people and the defenders of Ukraine — no lag, no overheads, no middlemen. The crisis is less acute now, but the needs are no less real. Missiles and drones strike Odessa regularly, smashing doors, windows, homes. The cost of food and utilities has tripled or worse; many staples now cost more than in Europe while pensions and salaries stand still. Many can no longer afford to heat their homes.
My focus is on the cultural workers who sustain Odessa’s independent life -- artists, writers, musicians, and teachers who do not trade in propaganda or culture wars. Unlike the "cultural activists" now thriving on foreign funding, many of the autonomous cultural figures are struggling to stay alive. 
I am working to help this community: the elderly, wounded or ailing cultural figures; those who lost windows and homes; displaced colleagues from Kherson, now under daily bombardment; and families of cultural figures with loved ones on the front.
Donations can buy anything from windows to food and urgent non-lethal kit for the front: medicine, dressings, warm clothes, power banks, kettles.
I can either connect you directly with people in need, or help arrange a quick bank transfer. You can tell me exactly whom and what you would like to support. For more, please contact me directly.
For more on my 2022 Direct-Aid drive, see Bostonia magazine and Timothy Snyder’s Thinking About… Substack.