Pitching in: Canadian with Ukrainian roots raises funds for medical services amid war

Paul Waldie

February 27, 2026

The Globe and Mail

The organizer: Bob Leshchyshen

The pitch: Raising $150,000 and climbing

The cause: Medical services in Ukraine

Like a lot of Canadians with Ukrainian roots, Bob Leshchyshen knows that the public is growing tired of the war in Ukraine as it enters its fifth year.  “People are getting tired because they don’t understand the ramifications of what may happen if Putin wins,” he said from his home in Toronto.

Mr. Leshchyshen, 75, has been actively involved in the Ukrainian community for much of his life, as a philanthropist, businessman and political activist. He’s been a member of the Buduchnist Credit Union for 60 years and has a background in financial regulation. He’s also served as a director of the credit union and helped launch the BCU Foundation.

When Russian-backed rebels launched attacks in 2014 in eastern Ukraine, Mr. Leshchyshen began collecting donations to fund non-military equipment for Ukrainian soldiers such as flak jackets and boots. The BCU Foundation, which he co-founded with other Buduchnist Credit Union members in 2006, was also involved and over the years it has raised close to $10-million.

The foundation used to hold an annual fundraising event but it was cancelled in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and remained on hold after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After four years of war, Mr. Leshchyshen and the foundation felt it was time to hold the fundraising event again. On Feb. 21, the charity hosted Resilient Hearts which featured celebrity chef and activist Yevhen Klopotenko and Irish journalist Caolan Robertson. More than 400 tickets were sold and the event raised $150,000.

The money will support a hospital in Ukraine and to help pay for 90 handheld ultrasound devices which will be used on the front lines to diagnose war wounds. The foundation is also contributing $20,000 to ship five ambulances which have been donated by the City of Toronto.

Mr. Leshchyshen doubts Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate an end to the war. He’s convinced that the fighting will only stop when the Russian people begin to feel the consequences, in terms of lives lost and economic hardship.  “That’s the only way I see it happening, and I think there is some chance of that happening this year,” he said. “Ukrainians are not giving up, they’re going to fight to the end.”

Paul Waldie is The Globe and Mail’s Europe Correspondent. He joined The Globe in 1995 and has covered business, sports, news and just about everything in between.  Paul has been a reporter and editor for more than 20 years, covering a range of topics from the collapse of Lehman Brothers to the Bre-X saga, Conrad Black, three Olympic Games, Brexit, the revolution in Ukraine and many other major business, news and sports stories. As editor of the Globe’s Report on Business section, he managed the largest financial news team in Canada and was responsible for all of the paper’s business and investment coverage in print and online. Since 2016 he’s been the Globe’s European Correspondent, based in the UK and roaming across Europe.