Ukraine Stands, Your Support is Invaluable

It has been two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. This unprovoked, full-scale aggression has already taken thousands of lives — civilian women, men, and children, soldiers, volunteers, social workers, and police. Ukraine continues to sustain a grim toll yet manages to put up a brave fight and stall the invaders.

The aggressor has been stalled short of the major cities

As of this writing on the 10th of March, Russia has failed to achieve its strategic goals. But the situation remains challenging.

In the South, the Russian military aims to create a land bridge between Russia and the unrecognized state of Transnistria. Currently, they’ve managed to encircle the port city of Mariupol and capture the city of Kherson. Ukrainian military stopped the advance of Russian troops near the city of Mykolaiv.

To the North, Kyiv, the capital, stands, while fierce fighting continues in small suburban areas to the northwest of the capital. Ukrainian and Western intelligence services believe that Kyiv remains the primary goal of this aggression, as Russians strive to overthrow the democratically elected President and officials to install a puppet government. The invaders keep accumulating forces with this goal in mind.

In the North-East, Russians managed to encircle Sumy but failed to encircle Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine. It seems they also took a pause to resupply and regroup before attempting another strike.

Having failed to capture the major cities, the aggressor continues indiscriminate shelling and air raids of the cities under siege or those at risk of being surrounded, including Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kyiv, and Chernihiv. These acts of war cause damage to infrastructure as it maims and kills the civilian population.

The West of the country remains safe.

Currently, the Ukrainian military has performed a series of successful counterattacks in multiple directions. Some of those pushed Russian forces back to the border or cut their supply lines.

Ongoing negotiations have managed to achieve small success in terms of providing green corridors for civilians to leave encircled cities. But we still get dozens of reports of Russians using the civilian population as human shields in occupied cities and failing to cease fire to allow helpless civilians to leave. 

The Ukrainian military can withstand possible strikes and keep hold of the major cities to eventually win this war. Our Western allies are helping us both on the diplomatic and military fronts. While Russia still may achieve some military success, there’s no viable path for them to meet their political goals.

AltexSoft evacuated 92 percent of employees to safe regions

As of March 10, about 92 percent of AltexSoft employees have been evacuated from the regions impacted by the war in the East and North. We also took care of their families and loved ones. Overall, AltexSoft’s Emergency Committee, consisting mostly of the management personnel, helped evacuate about 1,500 people from the war zone.

Most of us are now working from western Ukraine — Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhgorod, and Chernivtsi.

About 10 percent of AltexSoft’s employees remain in Central Ukraine, in Poltava, Kremenchuk, and the region. While there’s no military action in these regions, we are putting our efforts to move these people to the West as well. We don’t think the risk there is imminent, but our blood-thirsty neighbor has taught us to take all precautions.

We plan to complete all relocations by March 13 and gain 95 percent of operational capabilities by March 14.

Those few people who stayed in the conflict zones bravely decided to fight or provide volunteer help.

We’re grateful for your overwhelming support, and now we’re launching a GoFundMe campaign for humanitarian aid

You are great! The amount of support we receive every day is staggering! Thank you!

Clients. Our clients kept and some even expanded their relationship with us. Thank you for having faith in us and our people! We pursue our commitment to deliver stellar service to you.

Software providers. Some of our service providers are canceling subscription fees for us. (Not all of them, though.) AltexSoft has spent up to $500,000 on employee relocation, financial and organizational humanitarian aid to people in the conflict zones, as well as support to our military and territorial defense. These spendings made a sizable dent in our budget and having, say, 3 months free of charge is very valuable for us given the circumstances.

Humanitarian aid to Kharkiv. We will continue to provide humanitarian aid to people impacted by the war. Now, AltexSoft’s focus is centered on Kharkiv, the hometown for many of us. The city needs food, water, medicine, and shelter for those who lost their homes. AltexSoft and Kharkiv IT Cluster launched a GoFundMe campaign through our partner charity New Life Atlanta that has 503(c) status. This means that your donations will be tax deductible. If you hesitated to help the Ukrainian state because of taxes, this option is right for you. Please check this link and help our cause — https://www.gofundme.com/f/ay66gz-humanitarian-aid-for-kharkiv-ukraine.

Or you can write a check to New Life Church with the address 3150 Old Atlanta Road, Suwannee, GA 30024. On the memo, please write “Kharkiv.” This money will come to our fund.

Keep ending your messages and emails with Slava Ukraini. It has become quite a trend among our contacts. Let’s keep it going. Somehow, that helps as well.

We stay united. We will win this war together!

Slava Ukraini!