How a Toronto charity is helping this Ukrainian aid worker feed thousands of refugees

Valeriia Vershyninasays she never thought she'd have to flee an onrushing army twice in eight years.

She was one of hundreds of thousandswho had to leave the Eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk when Russian-backed separatists seized it back in 2014.Sheendedupin the capital, Kyiv.

But now, Russia's latest military onslaught has forced her to fleeagain this time toLvivin western Ukraine. The aid workersays she knew when Russian shells starting exploding in Kyiv that she hadto get her 10-year-old daughter as far away as possible, but she feltshealso had a duty to hercountry.

"My responsibility, as a citizen of Ukraine, is to stay with Ukraineand fight," saidVershynina, who was a commercial lawyer beforefleeing Donetsk and is nowa program manager for the Ukrainian organizationCharity Foundation Stabilization Support Services.

GlobalMedic, a non-governmental organization headquarteredthousands of kilometres away in Toronto, is helping Vershynina's grouprun a program calledFeed Lviv, which provides meals made by local chefsto refugeeswho enter thecity, whichhas yet to be attackedbyRussia's military.

"We're a very seasoned organization. We're not new," said Rahul Singh, executive director of GlobalMedic. "We've run 240 operations.We've worked in 81 countries.

"This is not our first war. I'm hoping it's our last."

'A very complex operation'

Singh's organizationhas not only helped launchFeed Lviv, buthas startedother programsin what he calls a "very complex operation" to provideessentials like water purification and medical aid.

The help is sorely needed. On Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency confirmed two million people havefledsince the beginning of the Russian invasion. Most of them are women and children. The mayor ofLviv,Andriy Sadovyi,said Tuesday the city is struggling to feed and house the more than 200,000 refugeesfilling up its sport halls, schools and other buildings.

"We know when we run those programs, we're doing the right thing. But it's still heartbreaking to hearthe stories of what people leave behind," said Singh, who first launched Ukrainian humanitarian aid projects in 2014when Russia invaded Crimea.

"I'm pissed. I want to help more people," he said. "We just need more access, bigger trucks, and more movement."

The United Nationshuman rights office said Tuesday it'sconfirmed 474 civilian deathsin Ukraine since the war began. The number of confirmed civilian injuries now stands at 861, though the actual figures are likely considerably higher.

Vershynina says she knows where Ukrainians'pain is coming from.

"They can't believe that it's happening. Some of them are angry,"she said.

"Many people have no plan ... In this moment, they realize they have no money to rent a flat, have no money to buy food."

She saysshe's aware Lviv could be the Russians' next targetandshe's prepared to get herdaughter and her own mother out of Ukraine.But she says she'll stay behind with her husbandto protect her country from an invasion that really started years ago when she was driven from the place she still calls home.

"Even after seven years of being displaced, if people ask me where I from, I always say that I'm from Donetsk."