Inside a home on Border Road in Concord, Ukrainian flags line the walls — sent back by soldiers, covered in signatures and handwritten thanks. They're proof of hundreds of boxes Iryna Synakh has shipped overseas, roughly once a month, for more than a decade. This year, for the first time, the donations that make it possible have started to slow.
"This year it's already slowing down," Synakh told WBZ NewsRadio. "So not so many people respond to my request."
Synakh and her family moved to Concord around 2013 as conflict escalated in their home country, and she began shipping supplies to Ukrainian soldiers shortly after — long before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The war hasn't slowed down either: Russia struck Kyiv with ballistic missiles on July 11, injuring at least 10 people, according to Reuters.
Friends and family still in Ukraine send Synakh lists of what's needed most — gauze, tourniquets, other medical essentials. She posts those items to an Amazon wish list, and whatever arrives at her door gets packed into boxes bound for the front lines.
"I send once a month, sometimes two times," she said. "Multiply the months by the years… it's hundreds."
"We do what we can so I continue to send the stuff myself," Synakh said — a promise she's kept regardless of how many people respond to any given request.
How to help:
- Amazon wish list
- Ship directly to: 210 Border Rd., Concord, MA 01742
- Most needed: gauze, tourniquets, and other medical essentials
