We returned from Ukraine on the evening of Monday, April 14. Somehow, it feels incomplete, as if we were not finished. In fact, we are not finished—our support continues, because Ukraine is not giving up, and neither are we.
But first, back to our transport. This report could start with the same words as the one about our previous delivery this past January: “This transport was the largest so far, …” – however, this time we had 9 vehicles and on the first day 17 drivers, then 10 on the second. The Mitsubishi L200, which had broken down in the 14th transport with an engine failure, had to be towed away and repaired, was back again this time. Other vehicles came from the Rhine-Neckar area, from the Frankfurt region, from the Ruhr area and then, shortly before departure, one came from Kiel.
In the runup to this transport, we had an incredibly generous flood of donations from four individual supporters, each of whom was able to finance an entire vehicle. In addition, our partner organization, Lawyers’ Move, was able to co-finance the procurement of three evacuation vehicles for this transport. This time, significant donations were also received from the BIA (Bürger für Integration und Asyl St. Leon-Rot e.V.) and its members after our presentation to their members. And last but not least, we received a very generous donation from Lions Club Ingelheim (Vereinigung der Freunde des Lions Club Ingelheim e.V.).
We are very, very grateful for the support we received here.
Bill from Hungary, who had already spontaneously supported us at Samyr Sakyiv’s concert in Heidelberg last autumn, got in touch. Our 15th transport was a collaboration with his initiative “Dnipro Express“. He had received a large donation from the USA and asked us for support in procuring an SUV and transferring it to Ukraine. We were able to procure a suitable Nissan Pathfinder with this money. It was also Bill who put us in touch with Cathrin in Kiel, who not only drove with us, but was also able to procure “her vehicle”, a Ford Ranger, on behalf of Pickup4Ukraine near Hamburg. Thus, the number of vehicles grew from the originally projected three to a total of ten over time. Bill himself had been able to procure another pickup in Hungary, and then—shortly before the deadline—an ambulance in England.
So, in addition to Bill’s two vehicles, in total, we had five VW buses, four pickups, and an SUV. However, since one of the VW buses needed extended repairs, and on top of that, two drivers unfortunately had to cancel at short notice, we then drove off with nine vehicles. And—spoiler alert—nine vehicles also arrived in Kyiv.
In addition to generous donations of surgical materials, we also received some donations from the ophthalmologists who supported us, three boxes of surgical instruments for eye surgery alone, as well as other valuable donations for hand surgery. From the Bodensee region, we received care supplies, a wheelchair and a walker. Further material was added by pediatricians. We also took along trench candles, which had been made in Walldorf by the local Ukrainian refugee community. The weather we encountered along the way showed us that they are still needed, even though the weather here in the Heidelberg-Speyer area was already springlike. Andreas was able to bring us – together with the VW bus he had procured —a donation of seven brand-new wheelchairs and a number of used PCs.
Some vehicles still needed checkups or repairs. With the overall coordination of TÜV, repairs and renewed inspection, we were busy in the weeks before departure.
Finally, this time we had many new drivers on board, along with people who were already on board for the second, third or fifth time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
This report begins on the evening before departure. At the beginning of the year, bestselling author Stephan Orth had already done a benefit reading for us about his current book, Couchsurfing in Ukraine, with the kind support of the Kulturforum Südliche Bergstraße e.V. Now, there was an opportunity for another benefit reading at the Osiander bookstore in Speyer – on the evening directly before departure. Stephan Orth had also volunteered to join us as a driver, so that we could combine both activities. The lecture in Speyer was well attended, and the night from Wednesday to Thursday was short.
Thursday, April 10, 2025
On Thursday morning we set off – as always – at the crack of dawn at a quarter past four, and unfortunately Malte’s VW bus didn’t want to start. Michael and Jim therefore took a detour through St. Leon and helped them get started. A half hour behind schedule, everyone left the Kraichgau Süd rest stop. The journey to Poland went without incident—initially.
Then, however, the Annette’s pickup started losing power, and it got slower and slower. A filter may have been clogged, or maybe bad fuel had fouled the engine. Filling up with higher-quality diesel, made the problem less severe.
An additional problem however, warning lights came on in Georg’s VW bus. The manual said to go the nearest repair shop, but the bus was behaving normally. We stopped, moved the load of the this bus to other vehicles, and Michael, Peter, Brigitte, and Georg proceeded to a VW dealership in Poland. The rest of the convoy continued its journey. The workshop diagnosed a sensor problem, judged the bus roadworthy, and then the party was able to resume its journey.
We met again that evening in Radymno. Bill from Hungary also joined us, with the L200 pickup whose frame he had welded himself, and Matt from England, who had procured an ambulance for Dnipro Express. Cathrin joined us from Kiel with our Ford Ranger, and our group was complete.
Friday, April 11, 2025
The morning in Radymno surprised us with a snowy landscape. We quickly took a group photo together with our vehicles. Half of the drivers headed back home, and the rest set off for the Polish-Ukrainian border. The border crossing was quick and easy. We cleared all 11 vehicles on both sides of the border within two hours. Right outside Ukrainian border zone, we had a hotdog with a Cossack face at the gas station.
We divided our large convoy into smaller groups of three, passed through Lviv without incident and continued until beyond Rivne.
Shortly after Rivne, we stopped again and then drove on to Kyiv, where we were able to park the vehicles that evening at the headquarters of our partner organization Lawyers’ Move, the “Hub”. There, our friend Ruslan received us with great joy.
We then gathered the group into a couple of the vans and drove to our hotel. Naturally, an air-raid alert sounded that night, but there were only a few Shahed drones, so we sat in the corridors of the floors for half an hour, separated from the outside world by two walls, until the all-clear came.
Saturday, April 12, 2025
On Saturday morning, we met Ruslan for breakfast and then made our way to the Hub. We unloaded the wheelchairs to prepare it for the handover. Dani hat got us in contact with an orphanage that could take the pediatric supplies.
The orange VW bus that Jürgen had driven from Radymno to Kyiv went to the unit of “Moryak”, (sailor). We had already given a vehicle to his unit in Kharkiv in October 2023, and later a Mitsubishi pickup. Moryak was a sailor in civilian life – hence the nickname. He came from his unit with two other colleagues and was delighted to receive the VW bus. His unit uses FPV and reconnaissance drones at the front but must also fend off attacks by Russian kamikaze drones. Moryak had a little extra time, allowing us to have coffee with him and talk while the two members of his unit took over the VW and were already on their way back “to work.”
The second vehicle went on Saturday to history professor Ihor Zhaloba, who volunteered for the Ukrainian armed forces at the beginning of the full-scale invasion at age 58. At the beginning of this year, he gave lectures about his work at the front – at the invitation of Pickup4Ukraine, the Württemberg Society and the Kulturforum Südliche Bergstraße – in Heilbronn and Wiesloch. Prof. Zhaloba received a Nissan Navara pickup truck for the volunteer unit in which he had been active. They had collected extra money, which could be used to partially finance the vehicle.
There was an air alarm with a missile threat, so we stayed in the hub for a while. There, another group of volunteers was busy assembling parts for drones in a well-organized, collaborative process. Some of us were able to help.
Bill, Matt and Cathrin, together with Vika, a Ukrainian paramedic who had come to Kyiv from the south early that morning, set off in the Hungarian L200, the Pathfinder we procured, and the British ambulance towards Dnipro to make the handovers of Dnipro Express in the south.
Michael and Annette helped Ruslan bring two vehicles to the workshop where the cars are converted into evacuation vehicles. The L200 pickup was modified that week and painted flat black so that Ruslan could deliver it the following weekend. See a video of the results here.
The others went on a walk through Kyiv.
Late on Saturday afternoon, Ruslan had bought us tickets for the movie “Киснева Станція» (=»Kysneva Stantsiya», i.e. “oxygen station”). The picture was taken before we watched the movie.
The film gave us a lot of food for thoughts. It tells in excerpts from the life of Mustafa Dzhemilev in the summer of 1980, a dissident from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea who is sent to work in exile in a factory in Zyryanka in Yakutia filling oxygen cylinders. The film mixes realistic narrative with magical elements and dreams. The work of Dzhemilev, but also the resistance against the Soviet rulers at the time and today against Russian occupiers, are likened to the myth of Sisyphus.
During the night, we had an another air-raid alert around 11:00 p.m., again “only” Shahed drones, but lasting two hours. Meanwhile, we slept in the hallway.
Sunday, April 13, 2025
On the morning of Palm Sunday, we met at Khreshchatik in a bookstore-café. The entire façade consists of tall glass windows. During breakfast, the next air raid siren sounded, this time for ballistic missiles. All the customers around us remained seated, and we looked at the Telegram channels to get details of the warning. While we were still thinking about moving away from the glass façade down into the basement, Ruslan said that the missiles would probably hit Sumy. That was what actually happened. We continued to eat breakfast, and in Sumy, people were struck by a Russian missile in a public square on the way to the Palm Sunday service. Shortly afterwards, a second missile hit for the rescue forces. Events like this motivate us to do even more, to procure vehicles and bring them to Ukraine in support of Ukrainian defenders to help them repel Russian aggression.
After the all-clear, we drove back to the hub and had two more vehicle handovers:
The Ford Ranger from Kiel, which Cathrin had driven to Kyiv, was handed over to the unit that had received the Toyota Hilux from us last October. The Nissan Navara that Dietmar had driven to Kyiv went to the unit of Pavlo, a former classmate of Olena, an SAP colleague who has also joined us on the road with Pickup4Ukraine. Olena happened to be in Kyiv at the time and met us, and the two friends were happy to see each other again: two people who both studied business administration, one of whom now works for SAP in Germany and the other who has volunteered for the army of his homeland.
Mariia from “Ukraine Frontline Hospitals” came and inspected the cargo we had brought. Pavlo then helped us with the reloading of the wheelchairs, boxes, and bags. Some of the items were temporarily stored in the Hub, while two VW buses were fully loaded with things which we ctook directly to Nova Poshta, where they were sent to the hospitals Mariia’s aid organization works with.
After a short and late lunch, there was some time left in Kyiv.
We met our SAP colleagues for dinner. There, Denis explained a ritual to us, which, in addition to many common “Bud’mo” calls, essentially includes the enjoyment of horilka (vodka), black bread, lard, spring onions, and borshch.
Our train left on time shortly before 11:00 PM toward of Poland.
Monday, April 14, 2025
The rest of the journey home went without incident. We got to Poland by train, continued to Kraków and were took the flight to Frankfurt – with a little delay. Stephan Orth left us in Rzeszów and flew to Hamburg. Many thanks again to Stephan for the support and the ride! And many thanks to Dani for picking us up in Frankfurt and for the strawberries on the way!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the success of this delivery: our friends and members who have helped in the field with the search, purchase and repair of the vehicles; the nurses and doctors who collect and make valuable in-kind donations to hospitals; the drivers who spend their own time and money to get the vehicles to their destination, especially Nils, who led one of our groups of three; Stephan Orth for his benefit reading in Speyer, for driving with us, and for reporting on social media on the road; our partners from Lawyers’ Move and Ukraine’s Frontline Hospitals for the excellent cooperation and hospitality; our colleagues from SAP Ukraine, who always give us a warm welcome and spoil us, and especially Alena for organizing our meeting and booking our train tickets. Above all, we would like to thank those who, through their generous financial support, make our activities possible in the first place. Together, we are making a tangible contribution to Ukraine.
