Common Sense, Ep. 62: Pastor Alex in Ukraine

An interview with a man born in Ukraine and raised in Washington who is currently helping hundreds of people in the Donetsk region of Ukraine

This week on Common Sense I interviewed Pastor Alex Zaytsev who is in Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. He’s helping hundreds of people find food, clean water, and shelter in that war-torn country. Alex was born in Ukraine and raised in large part here in the Wenatchee Valley. We talk about the need for humanitarian corridors to let refugees out and aid in, Russian propaganda, and what he thinks the future will hold for the Ukrainian people.

You can check out the interview via NCWlife’s YouTube channel here and if you’d like to donate and support Alex’s mission I provide the info you can use to do so.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome to Common Sense! I’m Dominick Bonny and as you can probably hear, I’m sick! It’s not Covid-19, just the normal Covid, the cold, but as you can hear my voice is not up to par. So let’s go straight into my interview with Pastor Alex Zaytsev, who was born in Ukraine and raised here in the Wenatchee Valley. He’s currently in the city of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, helping hundreds of people find food, clean water, and shelter in that war-torn country. He’s going to give us a first-hand look at the Russian invasion and how people on the ground are faring – and fighting back.

Interview segment I

Stay tuned after the break!

Commercial break

Hello and welcome back, let’s get right back to my interview with Pastor Alex Zaytsev who is helping folks in the Donetsk region of Ukraine right now.

Interview segment II

I put the contact info for Alex’s sister Olga, as well as Bill Dooley, who is with Wenatchee Valley Young Life up there on the screen at the end of the interview. If you would like to support Alex and what he’s doing, donating to either or both of those Venmo accounts is the best way to do that. That’s all the time we have for this episode, join me next time for an interview with Lorien Clemens, CEO of the local startup PetHub, which is doing big things in the pet industry. And we’ll check back in with Alex if possible in the coming weeks. I’m Dominick Bonny and I’ll see you next time for more Common Sense!

Sources:

On the Road With Ukraine's Refugees, The Daily: //nyti.ms/3CletOU

Why Russia Hasn’t Defeated Ukraine, The Daily: https://nyti.ms/3618G52

The Battle for Kyiv, The Daily: https://nyti.ms/3vS29V1

In Ukraine, the Men Who Must Stay and Fight, The Daily: https://nyti.ms/3KnDv2H

Vladimir Putin has stifled Russian coverage of the Ukraine war and strangled the vestiges of a free press, NYT: https://nyti.ms/3hLAIUC

The Bad Guys Are Winning, The Atlantic: https://bit.ly/3Cpg8mz

This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev: https://amzn.to/34m2bZU