Congratulations to the russian terrorist state!

After Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb and Spiderweb 2.0, russia retaliated in the only way it can; by attacking civilians.

These high-profile operations may grab the headlines, but the Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines are still fighting to keep back the russian infantry swarms. While we can't help the strategic campaign, we can still make a difference to the Ukrainians in the trenches.

If you remember, the 13 May raffle used items from the 17th Special Forces Center. The first photo is a member of the 17th thanking you for a tablet and hydration backpacks that UFL's general fund bought them. The second photo is provided by the winner of the 13 May raffle after receiving them, along with their shout-out to the WildBees!

This week we have some items from UFL history:

$2 Tuesday

As always, we start by offering our $2 raffle ticket:

Firstly, we have another chance to win a Bucha sunflower pendant made by our own Arcaist. We raffled one of these limited items on Valentine's Day; you can read the full history of the pendant here. (TL;DR: the sunflower seeds were collected from mined fields around Bucha after the russians fled, and given to Arcaist.)

The patch is the crest of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade and was brought back from Sloviansk by UFL's Anne during one of her supply runs. She is offering the patch to help fund supply purchases for her upcoming August delivery run (spoiler!) to deliver supplies:

A tacmed stash for Arcaist to keep on hand for UFL's emergency demands
A tacmed stash for Protect A Volunteer to keep in Kyiv for their emergency demands
A tacmed stash for Renegade Relief Runners and Doshka Foundation for their emergency demands (you guys seeing a trend yet?)
Tacmed for medic Sergei from Mariupol, whose days are wall-to-wall emergency demands

$5 UFL history collection

This week's $5 UFL collection goes back in time. The flag with embedded patch is signed by the Medical Department of the 5th Separate Assault Regiment (now Brigade). The 5th has a special place in UFL's heart, and in Robin's. She writes:

"The first Ukrainian soldier I ever supported, starting in summer 2014, was a close friend's father, a doctor in civilian life who enlisted as a medic. He served in 30th Mechanized then. When the full-scale war broke out, he re-enlisted. This time he went to 5th Separate Assault, where he was responsible for the stabilization points at Toretsk and then Chasiv Yar. He aged out and retired last summer. Now he delivers lectures on combat medicine. I'm told people get a little starstruck when they meet him. Here he is in a Kyiv Independent piece from 2023--he's Kaplya. And here I am with him on Maidan last spring, over the moon to see him in person for the first time in almost eight years."

The 5th is one of the first brigades that UFL supported in any significant way. Right now, they're in need of a refrigerated truck. Proceeds from this part of the raffle will help buy them one.

The pendant is just plain flipping awesome; it was made from a scrap of a russian Grad rocket that failed to damage the 5th's stabilization point Toretsk on November 1, 2022 . Kaplya sent the failed Grad to Arcaist, for him to turn into trophies like this. You can watch the whole story here!

Lastly, a set of fridge magnets celebrating the Ukrainian stamp collection in recognition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was given to UFL's Scott by his friend in Kharkiv when they met in Ukraine last year.

In closing:

This week's raffle is personal for us here at UFL and we want you all to know just how much we appreciate and respect your support.

Слава Україні!

Героям слава!

-Scott

Please note

Though the event description mentions a livestream, there will be none. And while we do deeply appreciate those of you who choose to donate as well as buying raffle tickets, we want to make it clear that donations are not required to enter the raffle.

A little bit of UFL history

...and a "thank you" from the 17th Special Forces Centre