Ukrainian Church in Apopka on the frontlines of supplying its homeland

They call it the little church with a big heart.

St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Catholic Church sits modestly in a residential area on McCoy Road in Apopka. It has a membership of about 100, with another 200 parishoners attending off and on informally. On Christmas and Easter, it can swell to about 500 for its Sunday services.

It sounds a lot like most small churches in Apopka and around the country.

But the distinction between St. Mary's and other churches at this moment in history is that they are supplying Ukraine on a pretty large scale in its defense against the Russian invasion, now in its fourth week.

Vasyl Luschyk is what you might call an active member of St. Mary's. He helps out with the church website and the logistics of its ongoing shipments of supplies to Ukraine. Luschyk came to the area three years ago with his wife and three children - ages 10, 16, and 18.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Luschyk family before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"I moved my wife and three kids here," he said. "We didn't have any relatives here. My wife just passed away last year from cancer. That was one of the reasons I moved us here. We were trying to fight cancer over there. It was partially successful, so we thought that it would be much better here, but we lost that fight, and she passed away."

After the painful loss of his wife, Olho, Luschyk's 18-year-old daughter, returned to Ukraine for college. But with an impending war at her doorstep, Luschyk urged her to return to the U.S..

"She came back three days before the invasion," he said. " She was getting on a plane... it's supposed to be February 15th, but there was trouble with the tickets and they moved the flight to February 20th. And then she was able to come over on February 20th. Then the war started on February 24th... so I was sitting on the needles. And yeah, I was trying to get her to just come over here to be safe. And I'm really lucky that she got here."

As harrowing as that experience was, Luschyk says it's not at all uncommon among his congregation. 

"Every Ukrainian person in the church has family over there," he said. "Every one of us has stories to tell and family members to help."

Luschyk is razor-focused on the supply operation he and his fellow volunteers at St. Mary's are involved in, but when asked his opinion on why Russia is invading Ukraine, he is unabashed in his blame for one man.

" Putin is committing war crimes everyday, and they don't care," he said. "That's what they do. In every country they invade - they use terror. And after that, the country should surrender, or they will do more terror. That's what they do. It's been happening for hundreds of years. So we know what we're talking about. It's just another example of what they do."

Despite his resolve for the Ukrainian military and its ability to defend its homeland against Russia, Luschyk is concerned about the end game for Putin.

"That Russian propaganda is kind of terrifying the Russian citizens that Nazis are coming from Lviv [a city in western Ukraine]. And that's why I think Putin will do something, just to prove that the Russians are trying to fight Nazis. They will definitely do something to Lviv, because that's the core of their propaganda. So Lviv is kind of under threat that some kind of rocket or airstrikes could happen. And I'm afraid that if Putin will hits the bottom, Lviv will be one of the targets. And Putin will definitely hit the bottom. We know that."

The supply chain operation that St. Mary's created is nothing less than astounding and inspiring. In its early days, volunteers had an "all of the above" approach to its donations.

"We started shipping everything," Luschyk said. "But shortly after that, we realized that the clothing is not as needed over there because a lot of people from the western parts of Ukraine can donate, and other countries can donate much quicker than us shipping it."

Thanks to volunteers like Luschnyk, St. Mary's transitioned to a more detailed and specific strategy for sending exactly what the Ukrainian military and its citizens need to defend their country.

"We started to concentrate on the really essential stuff - medical supplies, surgical kits and all kinds of stuff that related to the rapid intervention to save lives," he said. "And we started to concentrate on the food, especially non-perishable foods, canned foods."

Those donations travel by truck from Apopka and into a supply chain that is both complex and efficient.

"We have our Ukrainian shipping carrier located in New Jersey. They're their hub... so we are loading a truck here every week, or whatever amount of days we can fill it... and then send it to New Jersey... and from New Jersey it's going from that shipping carrier hub and flying to Poland because you cannot fly to Ukraine - there is a no fly zone for civilians. Then, they are loading trucks and going to Ukraine."

On its website, the list of accepted donation items continues to change. Currently, they are asking for these items:

• Medical supplies from (amazon wish list)
• Tactical Army supplies ( amazon wish list)
• Food(that can be consumed on the go such as bars, crackers, emergency food kits, etc.)
• Baby food
• We are NOT ACCEPTING CLOTHING, EXCEPT THERMAL clothing for the soldiers.

Donate items through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/13MEAOJXM92UX

Monetary Donation: https://stmaryukrchurchorlando.org/

• The church will be open daily from 10am to 7pm for donation drop off.
• Sorting and packing is from 4-7pm.

For more information, please visit the church's website or Facebook page.