“So many people have been ….

“So many people have been wondering what they could do to help but didn’t know where to start,” said Kim. “We decided to produce this concert with a wonderful ensemble of opera singers from Los Angeles, who are performing at no charge, so that the LWSB community could safely donate to this cause and know the money is going to get to the people who need it.”

Kim recommends donations be made by check to the order of UNICEF for Ukraine Refugees, but will accept cash payments if necessary.

Several LW residents from the Ukraine and other areas of eastern Europe impacted by the Russian invasion Feb. 24 will be helping to collect funds at the event. Leisure World clubs that are anxious to do their part will also be volunteering to facilitate the benefit.

As of Monday, Russian forces were continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.

The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”

Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time last week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.

Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.

The invasion has created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times. A month into the war, more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries—the sixth-largest refugee outflow over the past 60-plus years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of United Nations data.