war in Ukraine
Help from Hollywood: Stars support war victims
Vicky Leandros wants to take in two mothers and five children from the Ukraine on her farm. Photo: Georg Wendt/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The war in Ukraine has been causing misery and suffering for two weeks. People around the world are responding with an unprecedented wave of solidarity. Celebrities are also among the many supporters.
With sad eyes and a stony facial expression, pop star Vicky Leandros looks into the camera of the television studio, behind her a screen with the inscription “Help for Ukraine”.
The photo, which the 69-year-old shared on Facebook a few days ago, is linked to an announcement: she wants two mothers and five children from the Ukraine with her daughter Milana on Gut Basthorst near Hamburg, a courtyard with over 30 buildings, record this week. It is just one of many aid campaigns that stars from Germany and all over the world have initiated in recent days for those affected by the Ukraine war.
More than 80,000 war refugees have been registered in Germany since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine by Wednesday. Among them are 20 women and children who the musician Peter Maffay has taken in through his foundation in Gut Dietlhofen in Weilheim in Upper Bavaria, as the 72-year-old reported on Facebook. Further recordings in facilities in Bavaria and Romania are to follow.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling says he wants to dig deep into his pockets to help those affected by the war. She shared an appeal for donations from the organization she founded, Lumos, on Twitter, promising to add the same amount for incoming donations of up to one million pounds.
The Hollywood couple Ryan Reynolds (45) and Blake Lively (34) also boosted people’s willingness to donate with a generous promise: they would double every dollar donated to the UN refugee agency UNHCR until the million was reached, which is already the end of it Announcement circulated on social media in February.
Ukrainian-American actress Mila Kunis (38) and her husband Ashton Kutcher (44) launched a fundraiser with the aim of raising $30 million for refugees. They themselves wanted to donate three million dollars, they said in a video in early March. Kunis, who was born in Ukraine and came to the United States with her family in 1991, has always felt American, she said in the video. But today she is a “proud Ukrainian”. The actress described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an “unjust attack on humanity”.
Other internationally well-known personalities also publicly announced their support: The US model Gigi Hadid (26) says she wants to donate all her earnings from Paris Fashion Week. Queen Elizabeth II (95) made a “generous” private donation of an unknown amount, as the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) announced on Twitter. According to information from those close to him, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has also donated money for victims of the war in Ukraine. Accordingly, the 47-year-old donated an unspecified sum to the organizations CARE, International Rescue Committee and Save the Children as well as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Rumors originally circulating online that DiCaprio allegedly donated $10 million to an organization in Ukraine turned out to be untrue.
Actors take in refugees
The “Tatort” actor Axel Milberg quickly provided his own four walls and took in a Ukrainian family of nine – including three Yorkshire terriers with three puppies, as his wife Judith reported on Instagram. “Very tight and also chaotic” has been going on with the Milbergs in Munich ever since. “The family is severely traumatized and needs special care because Ivan (8 years old) is a boy with disabilities, he is confined to a wheelchair and cannot speak,” Milberg said. Son Julius approached the family in Munich after they had previously made it to the Bavarian capital in an “adventurous and life-threatening flight”.
Milberg’s acting colleague Timur Bartels (26) also made his home available and took in a couple who had fled from Kyiv in his Berlin house. The couple’s initial distrust and a certain sense of shame quickly disappeared, Bartels told the German Press Agency. “They are now very happy and want to help everywhere: clean windows, cook food. I can’t eat that much.”
The Berlin rapper Capital Bra announced that he wanted to launch a “Stop Wars Edition” of his iced tea. The profits should go “without ifs and buts” entirely to the people of Ukraine, as the 27-year-old musician with Ukrainian roots said on Instagram.