TAMPA, Fla — Project DYNAMO Team members said a Canadian newborn was safely rescued on Friday from the war-torn country of Ukraine.
The 8-day-old Canadian boy named Aari was successfully rescued from Ukraine’s capitol city of Kyiv amid continued Russian attacks and safely united with his parents.
During the mission, which took place from Thursday through Friday, DYNAMO team members entered a clinic in Kyiv and safely transported Aari to meet his Canadian parents in a Ukrainian city near the Polish border. On Friday DYNAMO team members completed the mission by getting Aari and his parents safely out of Ukraine and across the border into Poland.
The mission, named Gemini 3, is the second successful mission to specifically rescue babies from Ukraine conducted by Project DYNAMO. Gemini 1 and Gemini 2 were conducted simultaneously earlier this month using an Ambulance to transport twin American premature babies and a British premature baby.
The team consisted of DYNAMO staff members, a neonatal specialist, a medical doctor, and Ukrainian partners.
“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.”
So far the team has rescued more than 215 men, women, and children across 20 missions.
Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Project DYNAMO has received more than 14,000 requests for evacuation from American, British, Canadian, French, Romanian, Ukrainian, Nigerian, Mexican, Israeli, and Afghan citizens and residents, as well as citizens and residents from other European nations, many of whom include children and the elderly and members of the projectdynamo.org Jewish community in Ukraine.
Anyone in need of evacuation is urged to register at projectdynamo.org and register for the U.S. State Department’s STEP program [u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net].
In mid-January, Project DYNAMO began inserting team members into Ukraine to begin planning and setting conditions for potential rescue operations of Americans after the U.S. government made it clear that the U.S. government would not rescue American citizens stuck in the region.
Planning and coordination for a DYNAMO-led American rescue operation in Ukraine intensified after the U.S. State Department evacuated diplomatic personnel and evacuated the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv in February.
Those interested in donating or learning more about Project DYNAMO can do so by visiting www.projectdynamo.org.
