anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolskyi for voice of america from donetsk region. our next story is about how a girl with down syndrome, who was abandoned in a ukrainian shelter 14 years ago, became a hollywood actress. sofia sanchez starred in several series and in the new part of the american fantasy film "hunger games". sofia not only acts, she actively advocates for the rights of people with down syndrome. with khrystyna shevchenko, sofia shared her thoughts about the war in ukraine, as well as what she would like to ask her parents who left her. i feel different, but i think it's okay to be different, it's just different, it's not scary, it's great when you 're great, because being different can change the world. the most difficult thing about being in the vuva is that she's scared hungry and worried and doesn't know who her parents were and she was crying. we had to practice for me to scream like i was scared please ah that was my scream i 've never screamed in real life sorry neighbors sophia is not a nervous person she's not nervous were you nervous? wasn't

anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolskyi for voice of america from donetsk and cherkasy regions.s secretary of state anthony blinken on thursday. to the near east. blinken will visit israel, the west bank, egypt, qatar, turkey, greece, jordan, the united arab emirates, saudi arabia and egypt, the state department said. under during his meetings, blinken will discuss the protection of civilian life in gaza and the west bank. ensuring the prevention of forced displacement of palestinians from gaza and the safe release of hostages who remain in captivity - said state department spokesman matthew miller. main. the us diplomat will also discuss ways to stop attacks on vessels in the black sea by iran-backed houthis. earlier, the united states and 12 other countries issued an ultimatum to the houthis demanding that they stop attacking ships in the red sea. hundreds of fighters hamas were killed or captured during the october 7 attack on israel. israeli officials say many of the slain militants were found to be in possession of captagon amphetamine pills. it is a stimulant. which can ra

anna kostyuchenko for voice of america from kyiv region. known ukrainian pianist pavlo gintov, who lives in new york, gathered for a charity concert. of ukrainian classical music, those who want to help ukraine, and those who are interested in the culture of people who have been resisting russian aggression for almost 10 years. my colleagues natalka churykova and vyacheslav filyushkin attended the concert at the washington church of st. anna. a piano concert, the program of which consisted almost exclusively of works by little-known ukrainian composers, gathered a full house in washington. before the war, one could only dream about this - says the ukrainian pianist pavlo gintov. for the most part, ukrainian music remains something mysterious and unknown for them. and so far it seems to me that i manage to interest them, that is, as far as i can see, they like ukrainian music, they are usually very surprised that they have not heard it, that they do not know it, and they open it. as a musician, i was deeply impressed by this unknown piano re

anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolskyi for voice of america from zhytomyr region. a ukrainian startup became a popular platform for training a generation of specialists on the american market. the elevator online education platform offered courses on the newest professions in the field. it and video games. how does a ukrainian startup promote a ukrainian e-education brand during the war? khrystyna shevchenko asked about it from his hostages in los angeles. design of video games, leadership, soft skills, marketing, production, work with artificial intelligence. these and other courses can be taken on the elevator online platform. teachers here are professionals from top companies in their respective industries, such as google, microsoft, and blizzards. and... ukrainians were building a platform for quality online education. we are a ukrainian company, we work globally. we are present in the usa, but apparently, currently 80-70% of the entire company are ukrainians. we had and still have an office in kyiv, where most of the people used to work, now many of them are s

anna kostyuchenko, pavel sukhodolskyi for voice of america from kyiv.eanwhile, fighting the enemy with... the armed forces of ukraine are helped by the latest developments of ukrainian students. in december, a group of young engineers from the kyiv polytechnic university presented their projects in washington at a conference on the defense and industrial base of ukraine. ivanka pidborska found out how the students decided to help the army and what their developments are already being used on the front lines. students of kyiv polytechnic university developed reset systems, a project of drones and mine detector systems and presented them. all this at a conference in washington, and it all started a year and a half ago with the desire of students to help the military defend ukraine? this is just a caring team of students who at one point decided that we need to help the army more, that what we are doing is not enough. we have a member of the student parliament, this is student self-government in kpi, a member of the student parliament hondzheruk vlad, he s

my colleagues anna kostyuchenko and pavel sukhodolskyi asked the volunteers and... the latter how the constant attacks affect them psychologically, what motivates them and do they count on the help of the event? i believe that the ukrainian population cannot be intimidated by anything. if it came now, it seems to me that more than a hundred people i know that some even came from the kyiv region to clean up, and someone brought tea in thermoses, so i believe that they will not be able to intimidate us, because... they can beat, but they will not create fear with this 100% . and it goes on and on, and everything doesn't end , and that's it, but when you think about what those guys who are harrowing there feel, yes in the frost, in the cold, in the rain and everything, then you think that you are sleeping in a warm bed, even in the bathroom, but at home, and that's all... the darkness disappears and you think, what, what, what are you can you do more and of course, all the people we saw today who were leaving their homes, temporarily evicted, so they're in a lot of shock, and i think...