Lutsk journalist to run a 37 km marathon to raise money for combat drones

Elya Korotynska. Photo provided to IMI by Elya Korotynska

Elya Korotynska, a Lutsk-based journalist and volunteer, will run a 37-kilometer marathon to crowdfund for 37 drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The journalist plans to raise UAH 555,555.

She announced this on Facebook and shared the details with the representative of the Institute of Mass Information in Volyn oblast.

The journalist will run the marathon on May 21, her 37th birthday.

Elya Korotynska explained the purpose of the charity marathon to the IMI representative:

"On Palm Sunday, me and my friends from the NGO 'Automaidan Ukraine. Lutsk' made another trip to the Donbas – we were taking three cars there, including an old bus for transporting the bodies of fallen Heroes from the battlefield. On our way, I learned that my friend, cameraman and soldier Yuriy Siliuk, died while evacuating the wounded. He was a very dear person to me. Several more friends ended up in the hospital injured... Many people dear to me died recently... To be honest, I had a nervous breakdown. After the funeral, I started spiraling into depression."

"On Easter, I went home to Polissya, to my parents, to the woods... I screamed it out, cried it out and it helped reboot. I realized that I had to pull myself together and move on. Difficult? Yes! It is difficult. I'm already tired of losing friends, relatives, acquaintances and just incredibly cool people that I happened to meet. And that's why I have to accumulate my own resources even more and push forward. Because they have it much harder on the battlefield than I do," she said.

Elya Korotynska noted that she will celebrate her May 21 birthday after the war. Now is the time to save up her resource and do "something crazy and important". After the "reboot", she came up with an idea to run a marathon and raise money for combat drones.

The journalist noted that she is already training for the marathon, covering a longer distance each time. She is physically strong in general.

She plans to run on May 21 starting 5 AM, following the route: Lypynsky Manor, Zaturtsi village – Torchyn – Zaborol – Lutsk, Lubart Castle.

The crowdfunding goal is UAH 555,555.

The campaign aims to purchase 37 FPV drones for our Volyn operators.

The donation jar is already open

Link to the Monojar: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/5Ra5WCsSkT

Bank Card Number: 5375 4112 1801 8260.

As reported by IMI, Zhytomyr photographer Andriy Didkivsky started a birthday campaign to raise money for a drone for the brigade where his colleague, photographer and videographer Serhiy Hryhorchuk, serves.