The Ukrainian community of San Francisco has raised $7,815 to buy a car for a disabled Donbas war veteran under an initiative to support servicemen demobilized from the Ukrainian armed forces.
The Ukrainians in the United States raised the money via Fundraiser, a service that allows the collection of donations from Facebook users.
“Our veterans don’t get enough aid from the authorities when the war is over for them,” said Oleksandr Safronenko, a civilian volunteer from Kyiv whose son, now living in San Francisco, helped organize the fundraising effort.
“Those who really care for them are the ordinary people here in Ukraine – and also abroad.”
Safronenko’s son, Mykyta Safronenko, runs the Northern California branch of the Ukrainian-American Coordination Council, a volunteer union of Ukrainians living in the United States that helps those affected by the war in the Donbas.
The council started raising funds for Ukraine from the very first days of the EuroMaidan protests. After Russia launched its war on Ukraine in the Donbas, the council started supplying military gear to the volunteer battalions opposing the Russian invasion.
“I used to pick up packages from America at Boryspil Airport, very often. Drones, food packs, military outfits – lots of things were sent to help defend Ukraine,” the elder Safronenko said.
Latterly, the council has switched mainly to supporting those worst affected by the war – disabled veterans, the families of fallen Ukrainian servicemen, or internally displaced people in dire need.
In the latest fundraiser, the volunteers bought a car for Mykhailo Frik, a Donbas war amputee from the town of Bar in Vinnytsya Oblast some 250 kilometers southwest of Kyiv.
“Before the war, I was a lecturer at an engineering college in my town,” Frik told the Kyiv Post.
“When Russia seized Crimea, I decided to join Ukraine’s armed forces”
Frik was made a tank platoon commander and was deployed to the war zone in the Donbas. He participated in the battle for Debaltseve in the winter of 2015, defending the town of Vuhlehirsk with his fellow fighters.
In late January 2015, some three weeks before Ukraine’s withdrawal under fire from Debaltseve, Frik was severely wounded in action – and was left behind in hostile territory as his combat unit retreated. After a week in captivity, Russian-backed forces handed him over to Ukrainian side in a prisoner exchange.
After that, Frik underwent difficult treatment and numerous operations in Kharkiv and Kyiv started. He had to have a leg amputated, and after Ukrainian doctors had done all they could for him, he was transported to the United States for further treatment at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas.
“After two or three days, Ukrainians living in the state started visiting me regularly,” Frik said. “That was a big surprise for me… even in America Ukrainians eventually came from all around the country (to visit me).”
Frik spent a year in the United States in care and then returned to his college to continue teaching future engineers.
Then a sudden telephone call from Ukrainian volunteers informed him that he had been chosen to receive a car bought with funds raised by his compatriots living in America.
“My son and his fellow volunteers in San Francisco transferred the money they’d raised to me,” Safronenko said. “And we approached the Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant’s top management to ask them to sell us a car for the war veteran at a dealership price, which is slightly lower than usual.”
“We got no reply at all – they simply ignored us.”
So Kyivan volunteers bought the car for Frik at a regular dealership and presented it to its new owner in Kyiv on April 5.
“The workers at the ZAZ dealership that we bought the car at helped us to register it and put on corrosion protection absolutely free. The company’s top management ignored a Ukrainian war veteran – but their own ordinary employees gave their money and time without complaint.”
