LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - As the war in Ukraine continues on, a Louisville company is working with its Ukrainian partners on a special donation drive for the people of Ukraine.
Louisville-based Slingshot, a web application company, has worked with its software partners, ABTO Software out of Ukraine, for several years.
Starting February of 2022, that relationship became complicated when Russia invaded Ukraine. Still, the two companies maintained their relationship.
“We lost track of some of our developers and designers for a bit,” Slingshot Chief Information Officer Chris Howard said. “They were moving from really risky areas of the country to less risky areas. But thankfully in the end, I would tell you today I think we have, maybe minus one or two, the same team that we had before the war broke out. And it’s been really important to us at Slingshot. We thought, ‘Well the best we could probably do here is to keep them engaged.’”
For some, like Artem Shynkarenko, continuing to work has helped provide a piece of normalcy during the war.
Shynkarenko talked to WAVE News over Zoom Wednesday morning and said earning a living during the past year has helped him feel a sense of service to his country.
“I believe everyone has friends who are fighting on the frontline, who were killed on the frontline, and there are families without main income providers,” Shynkarenko said. “You can spend your days sitting and reading news, but at the end of the day you will be tired, nervous and that’s practically all. You can’t change a lot. On another hand, you can go to work, earn some money, buy some food, support your family and then support your army by donations.”
As the one-year anniversary of the war approaches, Slingshot and ABTO Software are working to increase their footprint in Ukraine with a T-shirt donation drive.
Howard said some of the designers at ABTO will create and design T-shirts supportive of Ukraine’s effort. Slingshot will then sell them and donate all of the profits to local Ukrainian charities.
“It’s a resilient group of people, and if you were to think about something like that happening here in the United States, I would hope that we would respond in a way that they have,” Howard said. “They want peace, but they also want their country back.”
The donation drive goes live Friday, February 24, the official one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
For more information, click here.