NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Two NYPD officers, one from Russia and the other from Ukraine, are coming together to launch a department-wide donation drive in an effort to collect relief supplies for those in the war zone.
The relief effort, which is seeking medical supplies to send to Ukrainians fleeing or under siege, was announced Wednesday during a press conference at the NYPD's 60th Precinct in Coney Island.
Ukraine-born NYPD Officer Stanislav Zubyk, vice president of the Russian American Officers Association, made his plea in Ukrainian and English.
"The items include ibuprofen, aspirin, gauze, first aid kits," Zubyk said.
His partner in this mission is fellow cop Artem Kuzmin, who was born in Moscow, Russia.
"We are here united within our association and the goal is to help the people of Ukraine and make sure that we collect as many supplies that we can get to those people as quickly as possible," said Kuzmin, president of the Russian American Officers Association. "Our mission is to help the people of Ukraine that are going through a crisis right now."
"We're united by the fact that we're all immigrants. We're all immigrants who went through the immigrant experience in the United States. We share similar backgrounds," said Zubyk. "It's extremely difficult. I keep in contact with lots of my family. We need to focus on doing what we can here, to focus on collecting these items and getting them out there."
There will be collection bins at every precinct across the city to accept donations.
The items will then be shipped to Poland, where many refugees have fled.
Inspector Maximo Tolentino explained the NYPD is working through a vetted nonprofit to get the resources overseas.
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