A Russian missile destroyed a World Central Kitchen (WCK) partner restaurant, Yaposhka, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, over the weekend, causing “tremendous amounts of damage,” according to the not-for-profit organization's CEO, Nate Mook.
In a video he tweeted on Saturday, Mook gave his followers an inside look at the wreckage and revealed that four of WCK’s partner restaurant’s staff members were wounded in the attack and seeking treatment in the hospital. "Nobody was killed in the restaurant," he shared.
Officials said at least two civilians were killed and 18 others were wounded in an airstrike in Kharkiv on Saturday, according to The New York Times.
Mook described the restaurant's neighborhood as a residential and business area, and said he had visited the restaurant's team shortly before the attack.
“This is the reality for so many right now in Kharkiv: Coming to work, cooking for people that are hungry is an immense act of bravery,” he said in his video.
On Sunday, Mook visited the injured WCK staff members in the hospital and introduced three of them on Twitter, calling them "true heroes."
"Yulia, Liza, and Yulia are in good spirits & recovering in the hospital after the missile attack," he wrote.
Celebrity chef and WCK founder José Andrés said on TODAY that serving food to Ukrainian refugees is "the least we can do."
"Even though food is only a Band-Aid, in this situation, at least a plate of food is giving hope," he said.
Despite the setback, the WCK staff plans to keep cooking and has been busy moving all of its products and equipment to another location in the city, Mook tweeted Sunday.
"They’re gonna be — if not today, tomorrow morning — already cooking. They say, 'We are here to be food fighters, we are here to feed our people,'" said Andrés.
The celebrity chef also paid tribute to the bravery of his team on Twitter, writing "Food heroes them all! Relief that so far that just were 4 wounded…..praying for them!"
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, WCK sprung into action and set up mobile kitchens on the Ukrainian border and near transit hubs.
Last week, WCK announced on Instagram that they have served more than 9 million meals to refugees following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The organization is on the ground in Ukraine and has also set up shop in Poland and Spain.