Pickup4Ukraine lives on the willingness of lots of people to help. We are always surprised by how many people give so generously of their time, money, and labor to support Ukraine. We have often mentioned them in our reports. In this piece, we want to show the variety and value of contributions our friends make in supporting our common cause. Here are just a few aspects:
We can’t do anything without money. Reliable used cars are expensive. Many colleagues, friends, family members and committed supporters of Ukraine donate hundreds or thousands of euros—often multiple times—to finance our purchases,. Many people who do not know us personally also contribute, as do people who are not wealthy. We now have a network of several hundred supporters. Larger organizations also work with us: for our twelfth transport, the German-Ukrainian Society made a significant contribution to the purchase of a VW bus, which is being converted into an evacuation vehicle for the wounded.
Pickup4Ukraine does not just supply vehicles. We always receive fantastic support from doctors, clinics and hospitals, who donate goods to the hospital network of our partner organization “Lawyers’ Move” in Kyiv. Regional doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, employees of medical supply stores, the University Hospital Freiburg and a dialysis center in Karlsruhe donate and work with their colleagues in Germany to support their colleagues in the regions of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipro. Instruments, equipment and consumables are collected, sorted and prepared for transport. The specialist knowledge and the time invested make this part of our work possible.
We are not car mechanics, and when we started Pickup4Ukraine we knew nearly nothing about old cars, so we are deeply grateful to have people like Yuriy Bublyk and Dave Stocker look at used cars with us before (and after) buying them, to help us make an informed decision about the purchase and any repairs that may be needed. Buying old cars involves risk, and the assessment of our knowledgeable friends is a vital support.
At the very beginning of Pickup4Ukraine, we brought vehicles into the country one at a time, and Annette and Michael could drive them by themselves. Then, in subsequent transports, there were two, three, four, five, and seven cars. They do not drive themselves. Many friends drive with us out of conviction, whether to the Ukrainian border or into the country. This doesn’t involve just long hours at the wheel. All drivers contribute to the fuel costs, pay for accommodation, food and the return travel out of their own pocket, so that Pickup4Ukraine remains true to the principle that 100% of donations are spent on relief supplies. We would like to introduce some of the people from our last transport as an example.
Daniela Lange and Dave Stocker, long-time SAP colleagues, have traveled with us several times, often together to the border and with one of them proceeding to Ukraine. Daniela and Dave provide support throughout the entire process chain, from advertising to vehicle purchase, loading, transport, and handover.
Georg D., another colleague and friend at SAP, a founding member of the our society, ambassador, and committed activist, has driven with us to the border several times, including this time. This time he also recruited Peter Z., another SAP veteran and friend of the Ukrainian cause, to join him.
Frank K., an SAP colleague, contacted us months ago and offered to help us ask hospitals and clinics for donations of materials — and he was successful. This time, he drove with Michael to the border and wants to recruit more drivers for the next transport.
Olena Kuzhel, an SAP colleague who works for United24 in her free time, supports Pickup4Ukraine at events and on social media. She drove to Kyiv for the first time on our previous transport and made customs clearance on the Ukrainian side much easier for us. When we were looking for another driver to Kyiv for the twelfth transport, she dropped other plans to join. Olena is concerned about the future of her country, and she is getting to work.
Mr. Gert Weisskirchen volunteered to be a driver on this 12th transport. Gert was a member of the German Bundestag from 1976 to 2009 and spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group on foreign policy from 1999 to 2009, as well as chairman of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group. We first saw Gert at this year’s rally in Heidelberg on February 24, the anniversary of the Russian invasion, when he gave a stirring speech on stage in front of the city hall in Heidelberg. We then met Gert again in his capacity as a board member of the Kulturforum Südliche Bergstraße eV at our benefit concert in Wiesloch in the summer. Gert spoke extemperaneously to the audience after the concert and praised the Ukrainians’ commitment to their freedom and ours. He offered to drive on this trip out of long experience and deep conviction. He organized meetings in Kyiv with a representative of the German embassy and with politicians and artists he knew from his previous official visits to Ukraine.
Our Ukrainian colleagues and friends help us with logistics. Elena Busha books trains and has organized roadside assistance in the past. Anna Mikulytska, Managing Director of SAP Ukraine, purchased materials for front-line paramedics for Pickup4Ukraine, arranged meetings with partners, donated generously, and organized appointments with our colleagues at SAP Ukraine as an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas. We are not meeting random people, but people we work with.
We have often reported on the brilliant cooperation with Lawyers’ Move (formerly Dead Lawyers’ Society). Nadia, Mariia, and Ruslan, directors of the organization, facilitate the duty-free import of our relief supplies, collect the demand from Ukrainian hospitals and validate the items we are offered, forward the materials to the hospitals, and do the conversion of our vehicles into casevac vehicles. You cannot find better partners.
Then there are the people who receive our aid, soldiers and doctors who do the terrible and dirty work of fighting and treating wounded and injured soldiers and civilians. Supporting their work directly is our purpose at Pickup4Ukraine. On the twelfth transport, we met some extraordinary people again. Here are just two.
In August, we had agreed to bring a pickup truck to a territorial defense unit. Our contact was a young man, Ihor, who came to us on the recommendation of our friends. Ihor was also supposed to pick up the promised pickup truck in Kyiv, but he couldn’t come on the agreed date—he was on duty. Instead, we were able to meet another young man, code name “Bach,” the company commander. “Bach” talked about his origins as a member of an ethnic minority in Ukraine who worked as a building contractor before the war and is the father of five children. He voluntarily joined the army despite being exempt from service. His dream: to start a farm after the war, with plenty of space for his children and lots of animals.
We had another handover, this time with “Darwin”, from the town of Kakhovka . We met “Darwin” through our Ukrainian friend in Walldorf, Roman. He was a worker in Prague before the full-scale invasion of 2022 and returned to Ukraine to serve in the armed forces. He now serves with the border troops in air defense.
We are not talking about professional soldiers here, but with former civilians for whom the desire for a life in peace and freedom is worth risking their own lives for. We have the most profound respect for these women and men.
We are pleased to see that in Germany and the United States, where most of Pickup4Ukraine’s friends are located, lots of people are willing to help, and new people are joining all the time. In our work, we sense how people come together as a community to make these deliveries possible ; people who connect, donate, search, pack, drive. We are very different in terms of background and profession: software developers, politicians, consultants, lawyers, nurses, doctors; from Germany, the United States, Poland, and Ukraine, aged between 28 and 80. What unites us is shared conviction that Ukraine defends our values, too, and that we as private citizens want to make our own personal contribution to help Ukraine.
