Burn kits. Thermal blankets. Tourniquets.
These and other essentials sit in boxes bound for Ukraine, ready to be sent to those who need them most: those who are being attacked in their homes or while defending their country.
Those who are the human cost of war.
Shipments from across New Jersey and the United States arrive here, to a previously vacant space in Fort Lee’s Hudson Lights building, where they are sorted and organized by a grassroots group of volunteers.
The building, at 2060 Hudson St., sits in a complex that houses restaurants, retail, and across the street, a movie theater — a common enough scene in Bergen County.
But the name of the group — Baranova27 — comes straight from Ukraine.
That’s 27 Baranova in Odesa, the address of the home where Aleksandr “Sasha” Chmerkovskiy was born, and where his two sons — “Dancing with the Stars” champions Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Val Chmerkovskiy, came into the world.
The family left Ukraine back in the ’90s after the fall of the Soviet Union, but maintains a strong connection to the plight of its people.
“It’s not my war. America is my country,” Sasha Chmerkovskiy tells NJ Advance Media. “But I feel their pain.”
The organization, formed just weeks ago with an Instagram account and a strong desire to ease the suffering of Ukrainians, boxed up 40,000 pounds of aid in its first four days of operation.
Baranova27 had a new tally this week: The group had delivered 77 tons, or 154,000 pounds, of supplies by air and sea to Ukraine and Poland.
But the effort needs help to cover freight and shipping costs for the rest of the supplies that have been pouring in every day from the Baranova27 Amazon registry. The list prioritizes supplies for soldiers and war victims, like wound dressings, blood clotting powder, resuscitator bags, heated socks, military surplus meals and antibiotic ointment.
What they need now: shipping companies to answer the call. To that end, Baranova27 has a GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost of shipping donated supplies to Ukraine. So far, the effort has met $230,226 of its $350,000 goal.
“Shipping is 99.9% of our costs,” says Chmerkovskiy, who is spearheading the relief effort.
The landlord of the Fort Lee building donated the huge warehouse space so Baranova27 volunteers could get to work.
Now, if companies could lend a hand and donate services like cargo planes to help with freight, it would be a game-changer, Chmerkovskiy says, because Baranova27 would need less funds to support transportation and could instead use donations for supplies and aid. It’s a point he says he shared with Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-9th Dist.) on the congressman’s recent visit to the Fort Lee donations center.
Chmerkovskiy, who co-owns 14 Dance with Me dance studios in the U.S. with Val and Maks — including locations in Fort Lee and Glen Rock — has a brother-in-law in Odesa and friends who remain in the country. But that’s not the only reason he was moved to act when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“I do believe that everyone has a mission,” he says, suggesting that maybe his just arrived later in life.
After Russian forces entered Ukraine in February, Chmerkovskiy, who turns 62 on April 4, watched as his son Maks, who was in Kyiv to film the TV series “World of Dance,” sought refuge in makeshift bomb shelters.
Maks Chmerkovskiy, 42, had just been home in Malibu, California when he decided to head back to work in Ukraine despite threats from Russia. At the time, the dancer, who previously served as a judge on the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars,” was led to believe that tensions would abate — that all the invasion talk was just that, and wouldn’t become a reality.
He was wrong.
Chmerkovskiy found himself in the middle of armed conflict, in a city where air sirens pierced the eerie quiet as families fled with their lives stuffed into suitcases.
The professional dancer spent days in Kyiv hounded by uncertainty and danger, sharing Instagram updates with his millions of followers from shelters in the war zone. Chmerkovskiy was told leaving the city would be too dangerous, but staying wasn’t a long-term option for him, either, with his family — including wife Peta Murgatroyd (a fellow “Dancing with the Stars” champion) and son Shai, 5, back in California.
He did eventually make it over the border to Poland, racked with guilt thinking about how he may have taken the place of Ukrainians on the crowded train. But even after he returned to his family in the U.S., it wasn’t long before he was back in Poland helping with humanitarian aid and coordinating Baranova27′s efforts in Eastern Europe.
“It was his will,” Sasha Chmerkovskiy says of his son’s decision to return, despite Maks’ own admission that he was not OK after his ordeal in Ukraine.
“Maks being in Poland, it’s a great help,” he says, adding that the Latin ballroom dancer is now headed back to California.
While covering shipping costs has become a priority so aid can get through, Baranova27 is also focused on other ways to help Ukrainians. The group, which has applied to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has worked to find not just supplies, but also temporary housing for a Ukrainian orphanage.
Sasha Chmerkovskiy wants to focus on solutions for building shelters for Ukrainians, like using converted shipping containers.
“I want us to create our own infrastructure,” he says, thinking about the long months ahead for people whose homes have been destroyed.
“We’re not here for today or tomorrow only.”
They’ve been trying to stay ahead of growing needs. Baranova27 has also been soliciting donations of gas masks to send to Ukrainian cities in case of a chemical attack from Russian forces.
Chmerkovskiy and a friend, Igor Katsman of Middletown — who helped with the humanitarian effort by donating a trailer to transport aid — have been filming themselves doing a pushup challenge in support of Ukraine.
For each day of resistance in Kyiv, they do one more pushup.
“Right now it’s Day 34,” Chmerkovskiy said Tuesday. “We do it religiously.”
Though many have shown up to volunteer thanks to Baranova27′s regular posts on Instagram, Chmerkovskiy says more help is welcome, especially because he doesn’t want existing volunteers to become exhausted.
“It’s a lot of work,” he says. “We work seven days a week.”
The prime shift is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and some people are on hand for six days at a time.
“It’s close to a full-time job,” Chmerkovskiy says.
He wants to thank every donor, donation drive and volunteer for their time, money and energy. That includes a group of local officials he affectionately calls the “Big 3″ — Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli and Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland.
“They help us enormously,” he says, whether that means assistance with delivering supplies to shipping points or first aid donations.
To volunteer with or donate to Baranova27, go to the Instagram page (instagram.com/baranova27), Amazon wishlist or GoFundMe page.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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