{"id":29512,"date":"2026-08-17T13:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/29512\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:55:38","slug":"ukrainian-festival-returns-to-wisconsin-as-war-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/29512\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian Festival returns to Wisconsin as war continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRANKLIN, Wis.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Hundreds of people attended the Ukrainian Festival at Croatian Park in Franklin on Sunday to benefit those impacted by the Russia-Ukraine War.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of people attended Wisconsin\u2019s largest\u00a0Ukrainian\u00a0festival on Sunday in Franklin<\/p>\n<p>The festival, organized by Wisconsin Ukrainians Inc., celebrates Ukraine\u2019s heritage, creates a welcoming space for immigrants and supports those impacted by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds collected go to support nonprofit organizations like Revived Soldiers Ukraine that brings\u00a0hundreds of\u00a0severely wounded Ukrainian service members to the United States for advanced medical care<\/p>\n<p>Its mission is to provide life-saving treatments that soldiers are unable to receive in their home country<\/p>\n<p>The proceeds collected will support humanitarian and medical aid efforts for those affected by the ongoing Russian invasion that has lasted for four and half years.<\/p>\n<p>The festival gives Wisconsinites the opportunity to experience Ukraine\u2019s culture up close through traditional music, authentic food, live performances and more.<\/p>\n<p>It was started four years ago by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin-ukrainians.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wisconsin Ukrainians Inc.<\/a> to celebrate Ukraine\u2019s heritage, create a welcoming space for immigrants, and support those injured in combat, like Taras Orel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI received my injuries in Donetsk Oblast in the village of Poltavka, and there were eight people with me, and only three of us survived, and all of us sustained very heavy injuries,\u201d said Orel. \u201cI did not think that I would be able to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/773138237_1395942139326380_5253842785182740225_n.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"(Spectrum News 1\/Haley Kosik)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>(Spectrum News 1\/Haley Kosik)<\/p>\n<p>But it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsukraine.org\/\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rsukraine.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Revived Soldiers Ukraine<\/a> that ended up saving his life. This nonprofit organization brings hundreds of severely wounded Ukrainian service members to the United States for advanced medical treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe take care of their medicine, we take them to hospitals every time they need to go to their appointments,\u201d said Tetyana Levchenko from the Chicago branch of Revived Soldiers Ukraine. \u201cEverything is on us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Levchenko has stood by Orel\u2019s side every step of the way during his recovery. It\u2019s events like this that help raise the funds needed to ensure these brave men and women get the care they need to return home healed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe doctor was saying that we&#8217;re almost there with my wrist healing,\u201d said Orel. \u201cAs soon as I\u2019m cleared, I\u2019m looking forward to flying back home to Kyiv.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And to reunite with his wife and two sons after nearly a year apart so he could get the treatment he needed to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRANKLIN, Wis.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Hundreds of people attended the Ukrainian Festival at Croatian Park in Franklin on Sunday to benefit those&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[525,10661,82,495,5538,10660],"class_list":["post-29512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-app-top-stories","tag-haley-kosik","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}