He was in IT sales, his girlfriend was a restaurateur, and his daughter was a teacher.
But now the three run drones, bulletproof vests and night vision scopes to the frontlines in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Fesiak family was raised in Canada but has returned to their homeland to help support troops fighting Russia.
Alex Fesiak, 54, told DailyMail.com how he met his girlfriend, who goes by the nomme-de-guerre Natalka, while volunteering in Ukraine – and translated her stories of braving machine gun fire and shells to deliver medical and military supplies to Ukrainian soldiers since 2014.
Natalka, now a senior logistics volunteer for the army, revealed one dramatic incident in 2016 where she convinced a commander to bombard Russian separatists with artillery by agreeing to dance a tango with him on a bomb-pockmarked bridge amid a deadly battle in Donetsk, east Ukraine.
Alex Fesiak, 54, (far left) girlfriend Natalka (right) and his daughter Sonya Fesiak have teamed up to help support Ukrainian troops fighting Russia
The family, who were based in Canada, returned to their homeland where they now run drones, bulletproof vests, and night vision scopes to the front lines
Alex and Natalka’s work became a family affair this year when they enlisted the help of his UK schoolteacher daughter Sonya Fesiak, 27, who now sources night vision scopes and commercial drones to ship to front line battalions.
Natalka said she began volunteering with the Ukrainian army in 2014 after her brother-in-law was killed by Russian separatists following the Maidan Revolution in the Eastern European country that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
‘He died during an ambush,’ she said. ‘Two bullets hit him in the heart and the lungs, so he didn’t have a chance.
‘At the funeral all his military brothers were there and started asking me if I could help in any way. At that moment, I said I’m gonna devote my life to this.’
She shuttered her three restaurants in Kiev and teamed up with two other women, mixing Molotov cocktails and delivering food and medical supplies to the front lines.
The women would entertain troops with performances of patriotic songs dressed in traditional Ukrainian garb, often amid fierce battles.
‘She put her life in danger I don’t know how many times,’ Alex said. ‘The vehicle she drove out to the front lines got shot up numerous times. There were bullet holes in the actual chair of the driver’s seat.’
‘I love my country and I never pitied myself when I was in a situation like that,’ Natalka added.
‘It’s pure adrenaline, and I always that thought that I’m there for a purpose, I’m there to save someone’s life.’
Natalka, who goes by a nomme-de-guerre, began volunteering with the Ukrainian army in 2014 after her brother-in-law was killed by Russian separatists following the Maidan Revolution that year. She is pictured with boxes of night vision scopes
Natalka decided to devote her life to her country and its armed forces, mixing Molotov cocktails (pictured) and delivering food and medical supplies to the front lines
The tough volunteer is seen delivering bulletproof vests and other supplies to the armed forces
Natalka said the Ukrainian forces were ill-equipped and barely trained back then.
‘They didn’t have uniforms, they didn’t have food, ammunition. We didn’t really have an army at all,’ she said.
‘The reason I feel the army is what it is today is because of all of the effort and help from volunteers right from 2014.’
The tough Ukrainian said that at times even battalion commanders needed a little encouragement from her and her fellow volunteers.
Natalka recalled when she and her musician colleague Yulia were bringing supplies to soldiers fighting near Donetsk airport in August 2016. Taking heavy fire from Russian separatists, they all hid under a bridge.
‘They were sending rockets and shooting,’ said Natalka. ‘Yulia pulls out her guitar and starts singing a song about a battalion leader, getting your guns ready, saying we’re going to live.
‘I pleaded with the commander to do something. He said: “I can’t because of the Minsk Agreement. We have to take it.”‘
Natalka pleaded with him and finally struck a bargain.
‘He was joking and said “I can bring my boys up and we can hit them with artillery but only if you dance with my friend Commander Butkivka on the bridge.”‘
‘I said ok, let’s do it at 10pm tonight. True to his word, they started hitting the enemy. They hit them so hard, they were waving the white flag on the other side.
‘They said “we did our part of the bargain now it’s your turn.” They grabbed Yulia under both arms with her guitar and brought her onto the bridge. She was terrified.
‘I went with the commander onto the bridge. All the soldiers were standing with their helmets and bulletproof vests, and we’re just in football shirts and shorts.
Natalka, pictured with soldiers, said the Ukrainian army was ill-equipped when she first began volunteering, lacking uniforms, food, and ammunition
Her boyfriend has praised her bravery and heroism for having put her life in danger many times, with her own vehicle (pictured) being shot up numerous times
Natalka recalled when she and her musician colleague Yulia (pictured) were bringing supplies to soldiers fighting near Donetsk airport in August 2016 when Yulia pulled out her guitar and started singing a song about a battalion leader as they took cover from heavy fire
‘Yulia played a traditional song. It was very romantic. The fields were literally on fire and the moon was out, and we danced on the bridge.
‘Once we stopped everyone scattered, because the Russians could have hit us with artillery at any moment.’
Ukrainian TV producers heard about the firelit tango on the bombshelled bridge and used it as inspiration for a ‘Dancing with the Stars’-type show, where female military volunteers were paired up with soldiers or veterans for a televised ballroom dance recital.
Natalka was invited on the show and danced with a veteran from the Donetsk airport battle – and performed a tango despite his prosthetic leg.
Alex, who lived in Canada at the time, was playing gigs with his Ukrainian band Dunai to fundraise for Natalka’s volunteers. In 2019 he got an invite to perform on another reality show: The Voice Ukraine.
The two met for the first time in Ukraine and quickly fell in love. As the conflict in the country subsided, Natalka took a step back from her dangerous supply runs and Alex moved to Kiev in October 2020.
But just 18 months later, they both saw the writing was on the wall for an all-out offensive by the Kremlin.
‘Putin had those funny eyes in one of those speeches of his and I said, You know what? Why don’t we all hop in the car and go for a little ride to [Western city] Lviv,’ Alex said. ‘Two days later the war broke out.’
The couple said they felt there was no option but to get involved once more.
An aerial view of damaged area as citizens return to Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine on April 28
Cleanup crews, journalists and local residents pass the site of a missile strike in the Shevchenkivskyi district on April 29 in Kyiv
‘No one’s trying to be a hero. You just do what you feel is right. That’s why we’re here today,’ Alex said.
‘The information coming in from the soldiers and the frontline people was that we need drones, we need binocular thermal light systems, we need helmets, we need bulletproof vests.
‘We right away went into fundraising mode. To date we’ve raised close to $85,000.
‘There’s a big need for vehicles,’ he added. ‘In a lot of cases, either they don’t have the vehicles or they’re in circumstances where they don’t want to use a military vehicle.
‘We’ve purchased and distributed 10 pickup trucks and 4x4s.’
He said the impact was tangible an immediate – even giving an example of a truck they provided that saved 10 lives this week.
‘We provided a vehicle to an army unit. And we get this picture back of the vehicle destroyed in a forest. It came under attack,’ he said.
‘The soldier was thanking us, saying, because of this vehicle, we were able to make it out numerous times, it saved my life, as well as it brought out nine wounded Ukrainian soldiers to safety.’
Alex said he is motivated by both the plight of the Ukrainian people and his heritage.
He said that his parents fled Ukraine during World War II, and his uncle died in Auschwitz.
His daughter, Sonya, said when the war broke out in February she also ‘dropped everything’ and began to help.
‘I was assigned the task of drones. So that’s what I immediately dove into,’ the 27-year-old former schoolteacher said. ‘It was a big learning curve.’
Ukrainian TV producers heard about the firelit tango which inspired a ‘Dancing with the Stars’-type show, where female military volunteers were paired up with soldiers or veterans for a televised ballroom dance recital
Natalka was invited on the show (pictured) and danced with a veteran from the Donetsk airport battle – and performed a tango despite his prosthetic leg
Natalka and Alex almost missed their first shipment of commercial drones, and had to chase after a UPS delivery van about to leave with their precious cargo in Poland.
But now the family runs a well-oiled supply line, sending pick-up trucks and SUVs over the Polish border and loading them up with supplies as they travel through Ukraine, ending fully-stocked at the Eastern front in areas like Donetsk and Mariupol.
The family even received a commendation from the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
‘I’ve had some kickback from people who sell drones,’ Sonya said. ‘They don’t feel comfortable saying their drones are going to be used in a war zone.
‘But the stuff that we are getting, it’s not offensive, it’s just defensive, so the Ukrainian army can protect themselves and protect the people.’
Natalka said the soldiers use the drone they supply to scout around their positions and look for tanks or other Russian forces lying in wait for them.
‘It’s just like any kind of resource that can give them an advantage just to protect themselves. They learn it quickly, and they’re so thankful for it. We can get that quickly, we don’t need to get paperwork for it, because it’s a consumer drone,’ Sonya said.