Southwest Floridians heading to Ukraine with military equipment, assistance

While many are trying to leave Ukraine, some Southwest Floridians are heading there to help the Ukrainian military. A group is supposed to leave in two days from SWFL and go to Poland.

Now, they aren’t completely sure what they’ll be doing when they get there but are willing to help in any capacity that they can.

Shea Hamlbing is a veteran who fought in Iraq. Now, he’s going to help the people of Ukraine fight back.

Hambling told WINK News his decision to go over was a calling from God. “I saw this picture of a little girl was killed over there. And just found I just started thinking, like, ‘I need to do something, what can I do?'” said Hambling. “And I’m religious, and I felt like God was calling me to kind of go over there and help. And so, we prayed about it. And I talked to my wife, and she gave me my blessing.”

Now, he’s focused on packing the gear for his trip. “One of my favorite sayings is ‘courage… the definition of courage is being scared of doing something anyways.’ So I’ve been there done that. I’m at peace with everything personally,” Hambling said.

His main goal is to raise awareness about the fight against Russian forces. Now, they’re also raising funds. “Everything that comes to us is directly going to go right into Ukraine. So we’re trying to, when we’re over there, we’re trying to not only, you know, gear us up other people who are, you know, with us over there. Whether it’s Ukrainian or Polish or whoever, people that are with us to make sure that everybody has the best equipments.” said Hambling.

The Pentagon has spoken out against Americans traveling to Ukraine, but Hambling disagrees with this suggestion. “I think if someone wants to go and volunteer and help somebody else out, they should,” he said.

The group has a website they’ll be updating throughout their journey, and you can reach out to them by following this link.