Days after his appointment as an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Yuriy Biryukov, a EuroMaidan Revolution activist who is leading a volunteer drive to support Ukraine’s army, is in Mykolaiv helping out the local 79th Airmobile Brigade.
His routine hasn’t changed much after Poroshenko signed a decree on Aug. 13 appointing Biryukov, citing his “consistent and efficient volunteer work.” The president said that “there is no more important cause than providing our servicemen with everything necessary to protect their lives.”
As a presidential adviser, Biryukov will focus on coordinating the volunteer groups supporting the army and the government and pointing out on corruption schemes he faced while working as a volunteer with Ukraine’s armed forces.
“Those who stole and who continue to steal should be punished. All corruption cases against certain military officials were passed to court, no one will escape punishment for their crimes. We need to urgently address corruption in the army,” Poroshenko said during a meeting on Aug. 13.
However, the conditions of the service turn out to be №1 duty for Biryukov.
He ensures that he “never stopped and keep supporting the army,” Biryukov said by the phone from Mykolaiv.
In March, he created the Wings of the Phoenix (Fund for Assistance to the Country) Facebook page that aims to help Ukrainian army. During the nearly six-month Russian war against Ukraine, in which nearly 600 servicemen have been killed and more than 2,210 wounded, Phoenixes helped to raise more than Hr 10 million from the activists all over the world for Ukraine’s army. Most of the donations come from Ukraine, the US and Canada.
Biryukov also keeps track of all money transactions and post it to the group’s Facebook page which adds to the financial transparency.
“I live in the army, I travel to the anti-terrorist zone myself to deliver the equipment to the soldiers, so I know the situation from inside,” Biryukov explains. “I can tell what is going on there, all corruption schemes, so that’s probably the reason why I was appointed – because I’ve seen it all (in the east) and it is better than to have someone sitting in the office.”
Biryukov along with his team of nearly 30 volunteers risked their lives to deliver hundreds of bulletproof vests, helmets, ballistic eyewear to the anti-terrorist zone in the country’s east. “Phoenix” volunteers also managed to raise money to repair Ukraine’s transport jet AH-26 and to build a headquarters for technical equipment near the city of Mykolaiv city in southern Ukraine.
He also stressed Phoenixes work with Ukraine’s regular army only (which doesn’t include volunteer batallions) and mostly with 79th brigade.
Biryukov, 39, a native of Mykolaiv, has lived in Kyiv for the last 20 years. He used to work for a private tourism agency during the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22 after starting on Nov. 21. Days later, Biryukov started bringing food and medicine to the activists on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti and volunteered to work in a medical unit.
After his appointment, Biryukov promised “to talk to all those who used to spend budget money,” reads his post on a Facebook page on Aug. 13.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
