One Seat in Coach, 36 Suitcases, and Enough Kevlar to Fight a War

[babylonsister]

One Seat in Coach, 36 Suitcases, and Enough Kevlar to Fight a War
ukraine Apr. 6, 2022
One Seat in Coach, 36 Suitcases, and Enough Kevlar to Fight a War The Ukrainian Americans supplying an army on their own.
By Matt Stieb
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In a black T-shirt that says “warrior” in Ukrainian, Ivan Sikorskyi swerves around potholes on the Queens cemetery belt in his Dodge Caravan with a silver chrome skull on the top of the gear shift. Behind him are two blue duffels and a suitcase filled with body armor, drone batteries, and tourniquets; stacked on top are three combat helmets from a stranger in Pittsburgh. Sikorsyki isn’t sure how the man got his number. “People just call me and ask if I can deliver to Poland,” he says.

These calls have been coming nonstop to the 33-year-old plumber since Russia invaded the country he grew up in. Two or three times a week, he takes off from his apartment in Ridgewood with a “Stand With Ukraine” sign in the window and makes this run to JFK airport, part of a network of volunteers shipping combat supplies to the front lines 5,000 miles away.

For years, Sikorskyi and others like him have been donating to Ukrainians fighting Russian-backed separatists, sending over Salomon boots and reconnaissance drones roughly once a month through commercial shipping firms such as Meest and DSV. But when Ukraine’s airspace closed following the Russian invasion, he and others started fundraising on Facebook for a makeshift operation that sends dozens of checked bags with a passenger on Poland’s national airline, LOT, to Warsaw. Then it’s on to Ukraine by van. At first, there were some concerns about sending supplies to a warzone, but the TSA is surprisingly lenient about what goes in a checked bag, and a representative for the airline said it doesn’t object.

Despite a wrong turn on the airport’s maze of roads, Sikorsyki is early to the short-term parking lot of Terminal 7, and he runs off to grab a bunch of heavy-duty luggage carts. On his return, another SUV shows up from central New Jersey. Nataliya Douglas has brought ten military-surplus bags she bought on her credit card for $3,000 at the advice of her brother in Kyiv, who is coordinating with an understocked territorial-defense force of Ukrainian volunteers, who are not as well supplied as the country’s standing military. She heard about this supply run only two days ago. “We’re like little ants,” she says. “Our antennas are up when trouble is in our homeland far away.” Inside each olive-green duffel is a full kit for one soldier: a ballistic helmet, a bulletproof vest, military pants, a fleece top, knee pads, elbow pads, gloves, and a Ziploc with nutrition bars. On top lies a piece of computer paper with Bible passages in Ukrainian — “there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand” (Joshua 21:44).

More Ukrainians arrive with suitcases, including Sikorskyi’s partner, Dima Topchiy, a financial analyst living in Bensonhurst who’s been supplying Ukraine’s forces on and off since 2014. He started a Facebook group to solicit donations from other Ukrainian Americans to fill soldiers’ requests — especially the body armor he chases down on the bountiful American military-surplus market. Upon delivery, the soldiers send him photos of themselves giving a thumbs-up next to suitcases filled with just-add-water pizza meals and $1,100 Autel drones. As the fighting ramped up, similar groups began crowdfunded shipments for commercial flights out of Newark, Philadelphia, Miami, and Chicago.

more...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/ukrainian-americans-personally-deliver-gear-to-fight-russia.html

[Delphinus]

1. That's

a great story.

[58Sunliner]

2. Thanks for this post. Got to donate.

[tavernier]

5. Was there a link for donations?

[58Sunliner]

9. Check here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3186323421583358

[erronis]

3. These people are wonderful. Kudos to them and all Ukraine supporters!

[niyad]

4. Tears. .Words are inadequate.

[Desert_Leslie]

6. Donation Links

Yes, the article contains a link to a Facebook page -- it has various ways to donate, from PayPal to GoFundMe, etc. This Facebook page, entitled "Resist Russian Aggression (Coordination platform)," is very interesting and worth checking out. Gotta love these folks!!

The article mentions that they are charged $107 -- per luggage piece !! -- to fly the equipment-crammed luggage to Poland.

[Sentath]

8. That isn't half bad for international shipping

Especially for the volume

[Wingus Dingus]

7. Wonderful story. BTW, I wish every food manufacturer who makes

protein and nutrition bars, beef and turkey jerky, and other nonperishable portable food would donate pallets upon pallets to Ukraine.

[Hekate]

10. That is bloody amazing!

🌻🌻🌻 Ukraine 🌻🌻🌻