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Carbon County rancher renders humanitarian aid in war-torn Ukraine

Encampment rancher Adam Kathrein poses for a photo with Lublin Refugee Center workers during his recent trip to Ukraine. Kathrein spent two weeks in Ukraine, helping with humanitarian aid efforts.
Courtesy of Adam Kathrein
Encampment rancher Adam Kathrein poses for a photo with Lublin Refugee Center workers during his recent trip to Ukraine. Kathrein spent two weeks in Ukraine, helping with humanitarian aid efforts.

During a November seminar at the University of Wyoming (UW), a Laramie pediatrician talked about his recent exploits in Ukraine. Encampment rancher Adam Kathrein was in attendance that day.

"It just hit me like a ton of bricks that I really need to do something," he said. "I just felt that calling to go and a pull to do it."

Kathrein works out of southern Carbon County and serves as a livestock inspector for the state, but he has always been interested in travel.

"My traveling desires have evolved over the years to where I want to travel with a purpose and do something purposeful and meaningful," he said.

Ukraine had a particular draw for Kathrein, who has previously traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe. Kathrein was even in Russia when it moved to conquer Crimea in 2014. At the time, he was consulting on a large livestock project.

"Some of the guys who were working on the farm were gone for about two or three weeks and when they came back, we were kind of joking about, 'Oh were you one of the little green men?' and they were like, 'We don't talk about this,' and they were very serious," Kathrein said. "So they were part of it."

Dr. Kent Kleppinger's November seminar at UW got Kathrein thinking about a return to the region.

Encampment rancher Adam Kathrein poses for a photo in front of a famous watermelon sculpture in Kherson, Ukraine. Watermelons are major export of Kherson, an area of Ukraine that has seen intense fighting during Russia's invasion.
Courtesy of Adam Kathrein
Encampment rancher Adam Kathrein poses for a photo in front of a famous watermelon sculpture in Kherson, Ukraine. Watermelons are major export of Kherson, an area of Ukraine that has seen intense fighting during Russia's invasion.

So he booked connecting flights in February to Warsaw, Poland and got himself into Ukraine. He brought a few suitcases with donated supplies from people in the Mountain West. (Shipping supplies into the region is unreliable at best, so manually delivering supplies has been a common tactic for those in the U.S. seeking to help out the Ukrainians.)

Once there, Kathrein worked as a body on the ground, moving boxes — of medical supplies, food, hygiene kits or other international donations. He also got to travel to different parts of the country and meet with medical professionals and government officials, who showed him how they were getting on.

Kathrein spent two weeks in the warzone. He was helping out in Kryvyi Rih and nearby areas recently liberated by Ukrainian forces. The war had clearly taken its toll.

"So these villages are without food, without water, and without electricity," Kathrein said. "There are landmines in their gardens and in the fields around the village."

But Kathrein said despite these difficulties, everyday life goes on there. City workers fill potholes left by rockets; citizens go to work. It was inspiring, and Kathrein said it was difficult to readjust to life in Wyoming, where resources like grocery stores are taken for granted. The experience was "amazing" and eye-opening, he said.

"I don't know how a Wyoming rancher ends up there, but I did," Kathrein said.

The Encampment rancher said he would like to go back, or to do some fundraising — just like the Laramie pediatrician who inspired him. Kathrein is one of several Wyomingites who have traveled to Ukraine amid the war. Many in Wyoming have intimate connections to the besieged country.

Jeff is a part-time reporter for Wyoming Public Media, as well as the owner and editor of the Laramie Reporter, a free online news source providing in-depth and investigative coverage of local events and trends.
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