What You Need to Know About Ukraine

Episode #041

With Svitlana Miller from “To Ukraine With Love”

What would you do if your home country suddenly went to war?

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Svitlana Miller watched from Utah as friends and family fled their homes. Instead of feeling helpless, she acted.

What started as a small effort to help loved ones grew into To Ukraine With Love, a nonprofit that has helped thousands of displaced Ukrainians.

In this powerful Podcasthon 2026 episode, Svitlana shares war stories, unexpected miracles, and why ordinary people often create the greatest impact.

This conversation may change how you see your own ability to help.

Meet My Guest:

Svitlana Miller is the founder of To Ukraine With Love, a humanitarian nonprofit that has raised over $60 million and helped house 4,000+ displaced Ukrainians since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Born in Kyiv, she moved to the U.S. to attend Brigham Young University and worked in higher education consulting before launching the nonprofit. Svitlana lives in Utah with her husband and three children and believes courage means acting despite fear.

There is Still War In Ukraine:

When the war in Ukraine escalated in 2022, millions of people suddenly found themselves without homes, without safety, and often without family members.

For most of us watching the news, the suffering felt overwhelming. The scale of the crisis made it difficult to know where to begin.

Svitlana knew she wanted to do something, but getting involved meant her husband who was working for NATO might be on the front lines. Was she willing to let him rescue her friends and family in Ukraine?

Svitlana grew up in Kyiv during the years following the fall of the Soviet Union. Her childhood was shaped by a mother who didn’t sit around and wait for things to happen; she made things happen. She was a dreamer and she gave her dreams to her children.

Understanding Ukraine begins with knowing it’s history, and knowing the people. Normalizing the people is what To Ukraine With Love does. If you want to know how you can help when war breaks out, the answer is in this episode of Sendy Mom.

If you’ve ever wondered if you were capable, the answer is “Not yet.” Svitlana asked rather “What are we going to do next?”

That question launched what would become To Ukraine With Love, a nonprofit that has since raised more than $60 million and helped house thousands of displaced Ukrainians.

But Svitlana’s story isn’t about heroic perfection. In fact, she believes the opposite. She describes courage as something that grows slowly

— like adding one drop of water at a time to a bucket. At first the contribution seems small, but eventually the bucket fills.

“You add one drop at a time and somehow your capacity increases to do more every day.”
Svitlana Miller

This philosophy reflects something many parents already understand.

We rarely have unlimited energy or perfect clarity. Some days we are operating at 80%. Some days it feels like even less.

But when we offer the capacity we do have — whether through service, generosity, or community — something surprising happens.

Our capacity grows.

“Don’t allow your current circumstance, you know, dictate the limits of where you can go. You can go anywhere and you can do amazing big things.”

Parenting Good Works:

Perhaps one of the most beautiful insights Svitlana shares is about children. In the middle of a humanitarian crisis, it was often kids who came forward with creative ideas for helping.