TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Project DYNAMO, a volunteer rescue group based out of Tampa, helped save an 8-day-old Canadian baby from Kyiv, according to a release.
Project DYNAMO said its team members rescued the boy, Aari, from a clinic in Kyiv and reunited the newborn with his parents in a Ukrainian city near the Ukraine-Poland border.
Friday, the volunteers helped get the family out of the war-stricken country over to Poland.
“We’re deeply grateful to the Canadian embassy for the overwhelming support they provided before and throughout this,” said Bryan Stern, co-founder of Project DYNAMO. “Their help was truly imperative and it would have been far more difficult without their support.”
Aari’s rescue was part of Gemini 3, the second successful mission to rescue babies left in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Project DYNAMO said it has rescued more than 215 men, women, and children. However, the group said it has received over 14,000 requests for evacuations from Ukrainians, Americans, and various foreign nationals.
Ukraine isn’t the first place Project DYNAMO conducted rescues from potentially dangerous situations. After the fall of the Afghan government, the volunteers rescued numerous Americans and other people from the now-Taliban-controlled country.
The group began planning the rescues from Ukraine when the U.S. government said it would not rescue Americans that found themselves trapped should Russia go to war.
To donate or ask for assistance from the volunteers, visit www.projectdynamo.org.
