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The night of February 24 turned upside down life of Ukrainians upside down. Most of us could not even believe that a war had begun in our native Ukraine.
To the sound of explosions, people left their homes and their hometowns in order to save the most valuable thing – life. Others stood up to protect their cities and decided to help those who needed it.
Do whatever you need
TRO member #9 Dmitry Strigun, when the Russian invasion began, he decided that he had to do whatever was necessary, not knowing what would happen next.
We woke up from the messages of our friends, the border guards, that an attack had begun, pinpoint strikes had been made on radar installations. It was 5:30 am. The main task then was to quickly get together. I collected the things that I had, winter ones for several people, packed up, went to the station, took a ticket, which was the last one to Kyiv. Already at 7 o'clock in the morning I was in Kyiv, – says Strigun.
The war for Dmitry from Dnipro began during the Revolution of Dignity. Then they, along with other colleagues and international partners, organized assistance to the victims, as well as to children in gray areas. He says that he felt that a full-scale war is inevitable, everything else is only a matter of time. Therefore, after the first explosions, he left to defend the capital.
“We went to Polyarnaya, where we managed to sign up quite quickly (in Troop – Channel 24), we received machine guns, there was no way to change clothes, we were immediately taken to the line, which we must guard, because there was a lot of information that a tank was breaking through there column, Kadyrovites,” Dmitry recalls the events of that day.
There was little time for decision-making
Marina Kharkova, a lawyer by profession, says that on the first day of the war she understood that without experience she would not be accepted into the army, they would not be given weapons, but the woman could not sit idle, so she decided to do something useful.
The first two days was the realization of what had happened. It was impossible to imagine why this was happening. I stood in the office and looked at Bazhan Avenue, which was completely packed with cars, they were all leaving Kyiv. Then I made a decision for myself what to do next, – says Marina.
Her war took her by surprise – when the first rockets flew to Kyiv. Marina is a mother of two children, and like most Ukrainians, she had to make one of the most difficult decisions in her life. So the woman stayed in the capital, became a Parimatch volunteer and began delivering all the help they needed to the military.
The Teroboronovite Dmitry from the first days defended the capital from Vyshgorod. He says that there was no time to make decisions, so everyone went there in what they were. However, the guys from the TRO immediately felt a significant lack of body armor, helmets and weapons.
Defenders experienced a shortage of the most necessary things during the war
“At the time when we were there, this bench did not reach us, because if it did, it seems to me that it would not end well. At that time, the weapons that we had were just machine guns. Not even that caliber , which allows you to conduct some kind of effective fire. There were not many cartridges for conducting full-scale resistance, “says the fighter.
According to Dmitry, the main resources were thrown at the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the TrO remained number 2 in terms of support. Most of all, ordinary citizens, volunteers and business representatives understood this.
At the first stage, Parimatch helped us a lot. They promptly delivered, for example, drones that we did not have, delivered them to us with their resources. Hoodies, socks, slippers were also handed over to us,” the man says.
Volunteers have already begun to be recognized at the checkpoint
Parimatch volunteer Marina already has a favorite checkpoint in the capital – on the Darnytsky Bridge. He says that there were always huge lines of cars trying to cross it. Sometimes it was possible to stand in line for an hour, and sometimes from 4 to 6 hours. For Marina, this checkpoint became her favorite due to the fact that for several months she passed it several times a day. There, the volunteer was even recognized and let through without queues.
The guys from Parimatch offered to deliver the most necessary things to the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on an ongoing basis. So I got involved in this business and consider that this is my small contribution. As I remember now: we are driving, the siren is screaming, there is almost one car on the road, someone else is running, and we are driving, because we have the address where we need to bring the copters, – says Marina.
The woman says that there were many requests – from the military and civilians. At first, Marina delivered humanitarian aid in her own car, but queues for gasoline made it much more difficult to deliver the necessary products. Then she was offered to drive an electric car.
“For eight hours at the wheel, we delivered armor, medicines, humanitarian aid, etc. In fact, a very large number of people were covered, a lot of volunteers were involved in order for it all to work. And this is the merit of many people, a lot of work was done for this so that each bronik gets to his fighter,” she adds.
The speed of the volunteers' work went off scale
So, corporate electric cars daily delivered bulletproof vests, copters, food, medicines and much more. For effective communication, special chat rooms have been created. This made it possible to quickly learn about the needs of the military, ordinary people, from whom the war took almost everything, and quickly bring them everything they needed.
According to Marina, these chats were made by really professionals, because as soon as they received an order, it did not lie down somewhere in the warehouse, but immediately got to end consumer.
Even we had such a case that we took the goods in three “teslas”, there was a large batch of such. We didn't even take them to the warehouse. We immediately got up on the street, re-sorted, they quickly wrote to us what and where it was necessary to take, where there was a request. We loaded everything into cars and each one took the goods to their destination – the speed went through the roof. Marina says.
TrO member No. 9 Dmitry Strigun recalls that he contacted Parimatch through a friend who gave him contacts and asked what help he could get and what he needed.
“They asked what the main problems are and what we already have. It happened very quickly,” says Dmitry.
The first two months of Russia's war against Ukraine were the hottest in terms of supplies, because then everything was lacking – from ordinary food to full ammunition.
Dmitry says that there were a very large number of people, so everything was missing, and the main part of the equipment was not there in order to protect ourselves and feel completely safe.
Volunteer Marina confirms that there really was a shortage of everything then, because everything stopped – there were not enough medicines, splints, turnstiles, knee pads, uniforms, bulletproof vests. So there were requests from all sides.
Now The biggest need of the military is drones, laptops and cars. The volunteer movement and help Parimatch continues to be with the army that defends Ukraine every day, as well as with people who, despite the pain and losses, still believe in victory! And you understand why you are doing this, and you don’t expect that you will be covered somewhere, because it can cover those guys who are there, – Marina adds.
Dmitry is convinced that now it is the time when the best qualities of people are manifested, and there are no longer gray shades – only white and black. But peace and the victory of Ukraine are definitely ahead of us.
