Summary of the Christmas mission to Avdiivka (15–20 December 2023)

27 December 2023 | Author: Natalia Melnychenko

In December 2023, a Christmas humanitarian mission to the frontline in Ukraine took place under the aegis of the Open Dialogue Foundation. Among the participants were our friends from the Red Poppy Charity, Anioły Miłosierdzia (Angels of Mercy) and the Latvian Ganta Fonds. The mission was also accompanied by war correspondent Marcin Wyrwał. This time we delivered as much as over half a million zlotys worth of aid to the Ukrainians!

Stage 1: Kyiv

We started our journey on 15 December, so that the next morning we could already be in Kyiv at our first destination point – the Rapid Response Unit, made up of Western soldiers of the ‘Reaper Group’, which operates within the ranks of the 130th battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In a well-hidden place, we unloaded the contents of the first of five (plus trailer) vehicles, comprising food, hygiene items and equipment of great importance during winter – a large waste oil air heater worth several thousand zlotys.

We were then invited to the base of the ‘Reapers’, where we were shown equipment they use in combat and introduced to members of the group, including ‘Tex’ and Jack from the US. ‘We are involved in assaulting and holding difficult advanced positions. We fight the Russians at close quarters, sometimes the kind where you have to come face to face with the attacker,’ explained Artem, an erstwhile film director with several international film awards under his belt, who decided to swap his camera for a rifle and head the ‘Reaper Group’. We brought them the equipment they badly needed – a Hikvision Hikmicro Gryphon GH25 thermal imaging monocular.

That same day we dropped by the National Centre ‘Junior Academy of Science of Ukraine’, operating under the Ministry of Education and Science in Kyiv. There we left big building blocks for the playground from our donor and also former ODF colleague Dominik Berlinski, owner of the company Mammutico.

Stage 2: Dnipro and the Bakhmut area

After an all-night journey from Kyiv, we stopped in Dnipro. It is here that the Velyka Novosilka village council is based, which accepted help from us on behalf of the District Hospital in Velyka Novosilka, located in the Donetsk region, between Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol and the regional capital. Lyudmyla Petrova, the head of the council, and her colleagues received three electronically-controlled surgery beds from us, together with anti-bedsore mattresses, more than half a tonne of disinfectants, medical and surgical masks and scrubs, protective visors, hygiene products, tapes for securing packages of sterile equipment, adult diapers (from Ganta Fonds), plus a rehabilitation walker.

After unloading the aid, part of the convoy went for rest, while Marcin Mycielski and Natalia Melnychenko from ODF, together with Marcin Wyrwał, drove to the Bakhmut area to meet the only Polish woman fighting against the Russian invaders in the ranks of the International Legion of Territorial Defence, Martyna. For reasons of Martyna’s and her colleagues’ safety, we can give neither the name of the Polish woman nor the exact location of the Legion.

We had previously given Martyna an Avenger drone signal booster, and this time we wanted to personally present her with, among other things, a set of tools and other accessories, a camera (donated by Konrad Borowiec) and Polish treats (mainly of the Krakus brand), which are missed by almost every Pole who stays away from their homeland for a long time. In addition, on the occasion of the upcoming holidays, we presented Martyna with handmade scented soaps with a customised dedication.

Stage 3: Civil-Military Administration of Avdiivka

The final and most important stage of the ODF mission was a meeting with the authorities of the Civil-Military Administration of Avdiivka – a city that, after the fall of Bakhmut, became another bastion of Ukrainian resistance, targeted for months by Vladimir Putin, eager to bloodily conquer it in order to boast of his success ahead of the Russian presidential pseudo-elections in March.

With the Avdiivka administration buildings constantly under Russian gunfire and its staff having had to evacuate several times from previous locations under attack, we were again unable to meet at the headquarters of the Military Administration and instead, for the second time, met at another frontline location, an outpost that has been abandoned since October 2022 after a ‘Smerch’ missile was dropped on it and killed seven people.

This is where we donated aid for the Avdiivka Military Administration that will allow the residents and defenders of this part of the Donbas to survive the winter and celebrate the upcoming holidays with dignity – food from the Bednarska School Complex in Warsaw, warm clothing and food for animals (from the Red Poppy Charity), portable gas cylinder cookers (from Ganta Fonds), gifts for children and much, much more. Several Ukrainian soldiers also received bulletproof vests and specialised food from Polish soldiers as Christmas presents, thanks to the commitment of our colleague Natalia Melnychenko’s husband, who is preparing in the ranks of the Polish Army for the war in Ukraine.

Stage 4: The return

Despite many obstacles (road conditions, vehicle breakdowns, lack of sleep), we decided to return to Poland directly from Avdiivka. Some of the team drove non-stop, some decided to spend the night in Khmelnytskyi. On 20 and 21 December, all participants of the mission (except friends from Ganta Fonds, who immediately headed back to Latvia) arrived safely in Warsaw (ODF, Angels of Mercy) and Poznań (Red Poppy Charity).

We are deeply grateful to all our donors and partners, without whom this mission could not have taken place: Red Poppy Charity; Ganta Fonds; Sygnis SA; Mammutico; ‘Bednarska’ Independent High School and the entire community of Bednarska School Complex; RAMPA – rental and sales – trailers, trucks, vans; Specaeromedic, who watched over our safety; Anioły Miłosierdzia (Angels of Mercy); Konrad Borowiec; and many, many others! And also to our brave drivers and participants in the mission: Robert Terela, Tomasz Sikorski, Edyta Mak, Piotr Marcinkowski, Marcin Wyrwał, Aigars Loss, Eriks Teniss, Alina Pustylnyk, Andriy Steshenko, the co-leaders Marcin Mycielski and Natalia Melnychenko, and the coordinators from Warsaw, Łukasz Krencik and Tomasz Kossakowski.

Although we are closing our warehouse and ending our humanitarian missions for financial reasons, this does not mean the end of our work for Ukraine! We will not stop helping until the Ukrainians win against the merciless and cruel invaders, so we continue to strongly encourage you to support our fundraising campaign, with all funds raised continuing to go to help the fighting Ukrainians:

Read about the other ODF missions: