Lending A Hand In Ukraine

Amid the brutality and destruction, people around the world have reached out to help those caught in the crossfire. Here are a few of their stories

PROJECT DYNAMO

By Andy Simmons

Project Dynamo’s Bryan Stern (above, in black coat) with Ukrainian EMTs and Alex Spektor (in scrubs) after rescuing Spektor’s newborn twins; and at left with some of the many others he helped save

Alex Spektor was nervous. He was in Poland near the Ukrainian border about to meet his twin sons, Lenny and Moishe, for the first time. The boys were just 10 days old, born prematurely to a surrogate mother in Kyiv. The day before, on 24 February, Russia had invaded Ukraine. With the country under siege and his undersized babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) requiring oxygen and constant monitoring, Spektor had no clue how he would get them home to Chicago safely.

Then he heard about Bryan Stern. The Army/Navy veteran runs the nonprofit Project Dynamo, which sends combat vets—all unpaid volunteers like Stern—into war zones to rescue Americans and allies trying to flee.

Though 14,000 people were already seeking Stern’s services, when Spektor reached out to him Stern recognized just how dire the situation was for Lenny and Moishe.