TAMPA, Fla — AT&T customers in the U.S. will be allowed to make free long-distance calls to loved ones in Ukraine, the telecommunications company announced.
According to AT&T, from Feb. 26 to Mar. 27, 2022, customers will be allowed to make unlimited long-distance calls to the country.
Here in the Tampa Bay area, that news bodes well for the thousands of Ukrainian Americans living in the region. Several churches across the Bay area have been holding prayer services to help local Ukrainians cope with the pain.
In Ukraine, a Tampa-based group Project DYNAMO, consisting of former and current military members, said it's in the process of rescuing dozens of Americans. After a successful rescue mission on Thursday, the group announced it would be conducting a second round of rescues on Friday.
“We currently expect to have the first group of Americans out of Ukraine in the next 24 hours and are hopeful to launch the third and fourth Apollo missions soon,” James Judge, a spokesman for Project DYNAMO, wrote in a statement. “While our primary focus is and remains getting Americans out, we are also aiding some residents of neighboring countries who are desperate to flee the war-torn country.”
In the last 48 hours alone, the nonprofit has gotten more than 1,000 requests for help getting out of Ukraine. Since January, Project DYNAMO team members have been on the ground in the country, prepping for the inevitable.
