Vojna ani Putin nezmizli - podporme dobrovoľníkov na východnom fronte Ukrajiny!

Who organizes the campaign?

My name is Braňo Ondrášik and I have returned to Ukraine as a reporter several times since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Although journalism is not my main occupation, I work at ESET, I felt the need to travel to Ukraine and write more than twenty reports in order to bring images of this war to Slovak readers directly from Ukraine. I completed most of the trips with photographer Michal Burza, and in addition to the publication in the press, we published a joint book about it, People of Ukraine, the reports were awarded the Journalism Award, the photos the Slovak Press Photo Award. You can read the reports in SME and Kapitál.

Michal Burza's photos from the other reporting trip are also used in this donation call. We finance reporting trips from our own resources. We care about Ukraine and the people who live in it, and we also care about the defenders of Ukraine. That's why we invest a lot of our own free time, talent and finances in these trips. I write reports in order to show the people of Slovakia this terrible war through the eyes of our people and up close, so that it will not be forgotten. And mainly to remind that the support of Ukraine, Ukrainian men and women is just as important today as it was at the beginning of the invasion.

Perhaps even more so, as this conflict has become a breeding ground for the disinformation scene and populist politicians who profit from Ukraine's suffering. That is why it is even more important to help right now and to always have an open heart. Today, the Russian Federation chose Ukraine, tomorrow it can be us too, and we will also rely on others to help us. Although Ukrainian men and women mainly help themselves with their heroic struggle, we will not leave them alone. That war has not gone anywhere, and Putin is not going anywhere either, although it has disappeared from the front pages and „headlines“ of TV newspapers.

Who will we help?

In this appeal, we are not asking for money for our reporting trips, which we will continue to finance and organize primarily ourselves. In addition, it brings people's stories, we have previously raised several thousand euros through other activities for people in Ukraine or organizations that help there on a daily basis. But that's not enough. During these trips, we met a lot of people whose fate cannot be indifferent. They are stories of suffering and national tragedy in the heart of Europe, but at the same time they are full of determination, courage and inspiration. From a relatively small sum, they can continue to help and save others – everyday victims of Russian aggression.

Michal Burza and I want to help them directly. We know them, we have spent a lot of time with many of them. We have seen them helping, we have seen them defending their homeland, we have seen them risking their health and lives for others, their neighbors. Many had to leave their families and face a shortage of medical supplies on the battlefield, while others gave away almost all of their possessions to help others.

Slava Fesenko for example organizes a convoy of supplies to remote villages of the Kharkiv region. When the invasion began, he did not hesitate to help his retired neighbors, especially with food. And he started going to the villages that were shelling. To help past entire savings and were joining another local. They call them „Bavaria“, after the name of the Kharkiv district, while they are – Novobavarskyi. Today, his delivery team organizes collections and supplies villages and volunteers from Kharkov to the surroundings of Kramatorsk and Avdiivka.

Oleksandr Reshetnik is the chaplain of the local battalion in the vicinity of Kramatorsk and is therefore highly respected by the locals. In addition to helping soldiers, he also goes to help civilians in villages where only a handful of people are left. And there are more and more volunteers around them. For financial assistance, they can provide the material that is needed there, use the money for logistics and organization of this assistance.

What exactly will the money from this campaign be used for?

We will use half of the collected funds to purchase medical equipment needed on the battlefield in the Donetsk region for soldiers (also volunteers) and save the lives of defenders and civilians. These are tourniquets to stop bleeding, gauze and other similar material needed at the front. We will drop off or deliver them directly to the troops in the area.

We will give the second half to volunteers who help and actually save civilians in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, such as Slava, Oleksandr and other volunteers around them. They will know best what to use them for – what they need urgently or to pay for gas with it, to repair an old van that they use to deliver on war-torn roads. Of course, we will hand them over in full as fundraised.

The more we collect, the more people will care about their fates, the more people they can help in the war-torn regions of Ukraine. Every donation – small and big counts, every single one will help and save a life. And thanks to them, Ukrainians can have hope that one day they will start writing a new chapter, when they will not have to to live through this Russian barbaric campaign.

Help them with us.