On December 4, one of Ukraine's most famous comedy teams came to Winnipeg. Watch the interview to find out how much money they raised and how humour helps bring Ukraine closer to victory

VIP Ternopil is one of the most famous comedy teams of Ukraine, multiple winners of "Make the Comedian Laugh", semi-finalists of the 1st and silver medalists of the 2nd seasons of "League of Laughter", actors and authors of the sketch comedy "Country U", the sitcom "Once Upon a Time in Poltava" and TV series "Hotel Galicia".

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, VIP Ternopil has been on the on the volunteer front. More than 8 million hryvnias were raised for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. With the help of raising money in social networks, charity concerts, auctions and raffles, $122,000 was collected in the USA. And more than 9 million hryvnias have already been collected by their charity initiative "My Coffee for the Ukrainian Armed Forces". In total, this is $550,000. With this money, 300 bulletproof vests, 70 SUVs, 18 thermal imagers, 25 drones, ammunition and other things were purchased.

But the war continues. And in the case of requests from the frontline for 6 million hryvnias. Therefore, the artists went on a charity tour of 11 cities in Canada. To close these requests and bring Ukraine's victory closer, VIP Ternopil brought unique lots from Ukraine and held an auction during the evening, at which 6 unique items were raffled off. Among them, a belt with the coat of arms of Ukraine, the flag of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade "Kholodny Yar", a bracelet made of Azov steel, a part of a downed Russian plane and two printed T-shirts.

In total, it was possible to collect $10,183 at the auction. According to the results of the previous auctions, it was possible to collect a little more than $56,000. A record sum of $13,127 was collected at a concert in Regina. With the collected money, the artists will buy cars for our military.

"Thank you very much, we are amazed at how cool our Ukrainians are, who live in all the cities we visited. Simply incredible people, very warm support: people host in their homes, people help with free halls, equipment rental, because they know that this is a charitable tour. Thank you to every volunteer who spent a few hours here with us. We appreciate the support of every person who was involved in this great charity tour," one of the organizers of the tour, Vadym Gorenyuk, shares with us.

Yuliia Kovalenko, Ukrainian View, U MULTICULTURAL