As Ukraine continues to suffer an attack from Russia, FLYR Labs is dedicated to supporting its colleagues, family, and friends, and subsequently, other Ukrainian refugees by supplying humanitarian assistance as they arrive in Poland.

As the invasion began, FLYR crew members immediately reached out asking how they could volunteer and support their neighbors fleeing the violence in Ukraine. FLYR Labs’ leadership team responded quickly by establishing and funding a “Centralized Housing Initiative” in order to assist refugees with temporary housing in Poland.

This initiative includes apartment searches and funding for medium- to long-term housing and support for more than 30 refugees and counting, in addition to donating critical home and personal necessities.

To support this initiative, FLYR announced Wednesday that it will set up a dedicated legal entity, “FLYR for Ukraine.” Alex Mans, FLYR’s CEO, met with crew members in FLYR’s Krakow office to announce the LLC and show support.

FLYR also continues to provide time off and flexibility to the more than 40 employees at the Krakow, Poland, office working to support these efforts.

“I am in awe of the crew’s amazing efforts in support of Ukraine while at the same time continuing to deliver for FLYR. Our team has been incredible as they’ve worked tirelessly to volunteer,” Mans said.

“Our crew members have offered up their own homes to house strangers, provided rides to safety, and donated their own money to ensure that refugees from Ukraine have what they need to be comfortable in their new surroundings. I am incredibly proud of our people and their kindness.”

A dedicated Slack channel, #supportforukraine, has allowed FLYR crew members to connect, communicate needs, and coordinate efforts for donations and distributions at the border. It has been a reliable source of information for the team as they work tirelessly to get people safe, and it has provided wonderful updates about family and friends as they land in their temporary havens.

Ukrainian native Ksenia Khlyustina, FLYR’s Machine Learning Platform Manager, offered insight from her family to the Slack channel.

“Currently my family is in Ukraine, and they are staying at home and decided to fight,” she wrote on February 25. “My brother joined the local militia and is building fortifications around town. My cousin joined the army as a volunteer, and some of my classmates are in Kyiv making Molotov cocktails and protecting the city.

“I have contact with them. They say the morale is high, and they are ready to fight. What they are asking us for: spread information on social media, especially if you are a German, Italian, or English speaker. Use hashtags and tag your politicians or political organizations asking for more sanctions (especially SWIFT) and showing support for Ukraine. To be able to keep fighting Ukraine needs to feel support from the rest of democratic countries.”

As of March 7, FLYR crew members alone have donated more than $30,000 USD toward this initiative, which has paid for supplies distributed at the Ukraine/Poland border. The team has provided everything from food and water to diapers and baby food to translators and child safety seats, and more than 400 first aid kits were sourced from as far as Sweden with the help of Snowfall, a travel technology company.

A GoFundMe has been created in order to expand this effort, with the goal of raising an additional $100,000 for continued support, including providing more housing and chartering a plane to carry first aid and personal supplies to the border to local sorting and distribution centers.

FLYR is committed to the continuous support of our Ukrainian neighbors, family, and friends as long as necessary. In the spirit of this humanitarian mission, we have halted all communications with our Russian customers for the foreseeable future.

Please donate if able to help us continue this humanitarian initiative, and speak out against the illegal invasion of Ukraine.