April Huggett: Came to Deliver Aid, Stayed to Defend Ukraine. Part 1

A quiet life in Canada. The haunting images of Bucha. A humanitarian mission supposed to last just 18 days that turned into a permanent commitment to Ukraine…

April Huggett is a combat medic with the Alcatraz Battalion of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar," a unit fighting on some of the most demanding sectors of the front.

We met with her in Kramatorsk to talk about what brought her to Ukraine, why she chose to stay, and how the atrocities of Russia's full-scale invasion transformed her from a Canadian volunteer into a soldier fighting for Ukraine.

This is the first part of our conversation.

My Life Before Ukraine

“My life was amazing. I had children back home. We had a summer home and a beautiful, big house in a quiet mountain town, and I loved my life.

I got to stay home, sell antiques online, and simply live — living in my own bubble. I had no worries about anything. Not a single thing before February 24, 2022. Not a single worry.”

Bucha Changed Everything

“Then came Bucha.

It was the liberation of Bucha, just over a month after the war started. First the world saw Bucha, then Irpin, and then Izium. I quickly came to understand what awaited anyone who experienced Russian occupation and what people were going through.

It felt like a direct parallel to World War II, and I couldn't look away.

There was one woman in particular. Her name was Irina Filkina. The photograph of her hand lying on the pavement in the streets of Bucha was published around the world. That image haunted me.

I saw her in my dreams. I remember feeling as though I had suddenly been awakened from the bubble I had been living in. I could be out walking with my children, and something my son did would remind me of the little boy whose mother gave him a note and sent him out of Bucha alone because she had to stay behind with her own mother.

I found myself breaking down in tears all the time.

It was so hard for me to accept that my life was still peaceful, that I had nothing to worry about, while at that very same moment children the same age as mine were being murdered across the ocean. People my age were being forced to make unimaginable decisions about their children, hiding in basements, enduring torture, and living through horrors beyond imagination.

It became impossible for me to simply move on.

Bucha was the turning point. After seeing those first images, I couldn't look away.”

Creating a Foundation

“In the summer of 2022, I started a foundation because I wanted to raise money.

Originally, I had no intention of coming to Ukraine. My plan was simply to collect donations and send them to an organization I trusted to help the Ukrainian people.

But at that time, there were many reports in the media about possible corruption — not necessarily involving Ukrainians, but people who had come here and were not using donated funds for their intended purpose.

Because I live in such a close-knit community, I thought it might be better to collect physical donations as well — soap, socks, and other essential supplies — and personally accompany them to Ukraine.

So that's exactly what I did.

I spent four days sitting in a shopping mall collecting money and donations. Then I drove through communities all over the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, collecting 350 pounds of humanitarian aid. I shipped it to Kyiv and then followed it here myself.

I arrived as the director of a foundation. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.”

My First Trip to Bakhmut

“I came to Ukraine on December 3, 2022.

I was sitting in Kyiv, looking around and realizing that this wasn't what I had imagined the war would look like. There wasn't a visible front line here.

By about December 7, I got a phone call from another Canadian.

He asked me, "Do you want to go to Bakhmut?"

I said, "Okay, let's go."

I didn't even know what Bakhmut was.

I spent my first night in Kramatorsk. At the time, it felt like a ghost town. There was Rock'n'Roll Sushi, a Georgian restaurant, and hardly anyone else was around. The electricity was unreliable.

I believe I first went to Lyman, then Zarichne, and only after that to Bakhmut.

That trip to Bakhmut completely changed my plans. What was supposed to be an 18-day visit became a month, and that month eventually turned into four years.”

Representing My Country

“When I arrived in Bakhmut, people kept asking me, "Where are you from?"

I would answer, "Canada."

They didn't ask, "Who are you?" or "What's your name?" What mattered to them was the country I represented.

I remember being in a soup kitchen in Bakhmut with maybe thirty people. One woman asked me where I was from.

I said, "Canada."

She immediately burst into tears, almost wailing.

"We love Canada. We love Canada."

Then the entire room — these quiet, broken people — started crying.

"We love Canada. We love Canada."

That was the moment I realized that when I go to frontline communities, I'm not just representing myself.

I'm representing my entire country.

For people who are cut off from electricity, who may only be able to receive radio broadcasts coming from the Russian side, it's often hard to know what's really happening.

Yes, they see their fellow Ukrainians. But when they also see people coming from abroad, they understand that the world stands with them — that Canada stands with them, that people are cheering them on, supporting them, and doing everything they can to help them survive.”

Learn more about the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar" on the official website: https://www.93ombr.army

Text: Dmytro Tolkachov

Video, Photos: Dmytro Tolkachov, Oleksandr Bekker

Editing: Oleksandr Bekker