War has been raging in Ukraine for two and a half weeks, and Russia’s small neighbor has been under constant fire from its “big brother” for 18 days – and Kyiv, as the capital and seat of the Ukrainian government, is particularly in the sights of the Russian invaders under Vladimir Putin. The war has now not only made it to the gates of Kiev, but also to the formerly picturesque Ukrainian metropolis – only on Monday morning did a Russian projectile – an Iksander rocket – hit a block of flats in the Kurenivka district, causing a number of injuries and also two lives. Kyiv is now surrounded, food is becoming scarce – and there are still people in Kyiv waiting for rescue. An evacuation seems difficult if not impossible – and yet that is exactly the goal that a team of helpful entrepreneurs from Austria and Germany have set themselves.
For security reasons, the names of many of the helpers from the “Kyiv rescue mission” who work tirelessly to rescue the weakest from the Ukrainian capital cannot be mentioned here. The danger posed by the Russian attacker is too great. But the eXXpress knows them all, and in these times they prefer to let their actions speak for themselves anyway.
“Things started small,” says one of the organizers of the “Kyiv Rescue Mission”, Adrian Rauko, opposite the eXXpress. “A colleague called and told me about a woman with two small children who was desperately trying to get out of town.” The need is very great, “for the weakest in society there are almost no more opportunities to come from Ukraine”. There are a few organizations and many private helpers on the Polish border, “but none of them go as far as Kyiv”. The Ukrainians have their hands full transporting civilian relief supplies such as baby diapers, non-perishable food and medical equipment from the Polish border to the affected areas. Most of the international aid organizations have already left the city. That’s when they decided to do something themselves, says Rauko. Last week, “three buses were organized within 70 hours, fully loaded with relief supplies”. The organizers, most of whom come from the security industry, are well networked in Ukraine and work together with the Kiev city administration under Mayor Klitschko. “The Austrian embassy in Ukraine and Slovakia also helped us a lot,” says Rauko. In addition to the Viennese entrepreneur, the organizing team also consists of the Berlin tax consultant Janine von Wolfersdorff and the Salzburg consultant Bertram Kloss.
Last Tuesday, the first trip to the capital was dared, at the gates of which the Russian soldiers are already preparing for the attack. “Our drivers have security training,” says Rauko, but the convoy is “completely unarmed and is only transporting civilian relief supplies.” The organizers are well networked, in Salzburg, Munich and Berlin they also work up to 18 hours a day to ensure that the relief supplies make their way in and that children and women make their way out of Kyiv. However, this is anything but harmless, says Rauko. It has happened that unarmed buses and civilians have been attacked by Russians. Last week, 160 refugees were successfully brought to Austria. “It was exclusively women and children, also a group of sick children from a rehabilitation center and also those with special needs”.
