‘We are trying to find things which are not in shops anymore’

“I’m from Chernihiv in the north of Ukraine. I recently saw my grandmother for the for the first time in a year due to Covid. I made a decision a few days prior to the invasion to leave to the west of Ukraine. I took a train to Lviv and spent some time there trying to figure out what to do. Then on the 24^th we woke up to the news of rocket attacks and that’s when I crossed the border into Poland to evacuate my mum. I also had Covid for four weeks so I was recovering from that. We crossed the border two hours before it was closed for males of my age. I’m a bit torn because my heart wants to be in Ukraine. If it wasn’t for my grandmother and my mother who depend on me because I’m the only child and grandchild, I would also be fighting on the streets.

One of the big reasons why I ended up at TU Delft is because I was inspired by my family. My grandmother was a rocket engineer along with two of her siblings. My grandmother was one of the engineers for the Tu-144, the ‘Concorde’ of the Soviet Union. My grandfather still lives in Russia, he is 85 years old. He is oblivious to the war because he would not survive it if he knew what was happening. He worked his whole life for Putin, trying to make his army greater, and now Russia attacked his own country. My great-grandfather was stationed in Brest in Belarus in June 1941 and he was one of the first soldiers to receive the attack of Hitler. He had to run for 50 kilometres in his underwear to escape and he made it all the way to Berlin. On the way back to Ukraine (Soviet Union) his tank hit a mine and he lost his arm. When he made it home, he then built a house with just one arm after his old house was destroyed in the war.

‘We have started to help volunteers that are assembling bulletproof vests’

Now my grandmother is staying in a basement, she’s in the line of contact and she can hear Russians attacking her city. I’m quite patriotic. I love my country and my country is nothing like Russia. We are trying to protect the freedom of not just my family and my country but the whole civilised world. For one day I felt fear for my country, but now I feel anger and that’s why I’m trying to do some tangible projects to try and overcome this situation. At the moment I am in Poland and I’m trying to help out with logistics, to help how I can.

My friends and I have started to help some volunteers that are assembling bulletproof vests. These kinds of things are very useful but are sold out in all of Eastern Europe. In a way that’s good because it likely means they are already in Ukraine. We are trying to source components for the vests and we are sending them to Kharkiv through a very complicated route so it takes a few steps to reach the location, which is under siege.

‘We are looking for drones that anyone can buy for surveillance’

Besides vests and components, we are expanding and trying to find other things which are not in shops anymore in Ukraine. For example, right now we are looking for drones. Not army drones, but normal drones that anyone can buy for surveillance. And we’re also looking for things like army boots. We have raised about EUR 15,000 from friends and family but we have a lot more requests to fill than we have money right now. We are trying to use what we have for the most impact. Yesterday I spent several hours trying to find army boots in size 49 for one of my contacts. He’s literally carrying a machine gun in running shoes.

These people are just like me, they don’t have military training. They are volunteering as part of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Force. These are just normal people who are united by the idea that they want to protect their home. Unfortunately, the Russian army is shooting a lot of civilians. In my hometown a few days ago they killed 47 people by rocket in a single house. These guys are running around trying to protect their families who are in basements so they are quite motivated. There are a lot of volunteers because Ukraine is as united as it has ever been and the whole world is behind us. But there are a lot more volunteers than equipment.

I have reached out to many contacts trying to find ways to source used drones and other materials. I’m sure there are things out there that could be donated. If anyone wants to help in any way, they can find more information on my website.  I am trying my best to help my country, to help my family and my friends.”

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Heather Montague / Freelance writer