"The hardest thing is when the guys you help die." Volunteer Humenchuk on donations, fraudsters, personal losses

On the first experience of volunteering

Before the full-scale invasion, I had my own mini-football team, which I developed. Now the team no longer exists.

I wanted to be useful to the army. I had a desire to fight, but there were health restrictions. One day a friend wrote to ask if I could help with a Starlink. I said I could.

I have a small audience on social media, but a lot of people know me through my professional activities, and I live in two cities – Lutsk, where I hail from, and Kyiv, since I moved here a long time ago. My audience of acquaintances is quite large, and that's why money for this Starlink was raised in a few hours.

I liked it, and I started helping my friend and his team. And then, when I proved my effectiveness, I received requests. Even the military themselves recommended me to each other as a volunteer. 

On fraudsters

When I was just starting to work in the volunteer movement, I was cheated out of 20,000 hryvnias ($491). Everything just happened very quickly. There was a soldier next to me, he had to go to Bakhmut the next day, and he said: "Who would swindle a serviceman?" They sent us all the documents, but we didn't think to call online to see these people via video. We trusted them. And it turned out that we went from Kyiv to Shehyni, in Lviv Oblast, to meet the car at the border, and there was simply no response.

These people, as it turned out later, work abroad, and we found them through the SBU security service. This situation taught me a lot, and now I don't give any deposits or prepayments to anyone.

Unfortunately, there are volunteers who make money on war. They set up funds, buy cars, and then sell them on OLX [classifieds platform], so to speak. As far as I know, our agencies are dealing with this. There was a case when a volunteer with whom I was supposed to cooperate (I wanted to buy a car from him; it's good that nothing happened) was brought to justice. I think there are many such cases. Of course, this is a hindrance.

Is it true that the volunteer movement is a reaction to the fact that the state has failed to do its work?

I believe that the state cannot provide the army with absolutely everything. For example, cars. These are consumables. The state cannot cover the number of cars that the guys at the front need.

In addition, I think the state cannot buy used cars. There are certain programs. So even if the state allocates a certain amount of money for cars, they will be much more expensive. What the state can spend on one car, I can buy, relatively speaking, four cars for this money.

We definitely have no problems with food in the army. Most guys even refuse to receive food aid. There are exceptions, but these are isolated cases.

In my opinion, the state should provide first of all, weapons, ammunition, etc. Because this is the main thing, and this is what volunteers cannot bring.

On donations

There are fewer donors. Perhaps people lack funds, not everyone can donate steadily. War exhausts both the military and civilians. There are things that relax society, like “coffee in Crimea in 2023:. I think we shouldn't talk about this aloud. If there are such plans, it's better not to voice them.

There are a lot of shortcomings. But people know me, I report and show my activities transparently. And my effectiveness as a volunteer has not yet decreased.

I think we lack volunteers who could solve a number of problems of the military more quickly. I once had a situation at one of the checkpoints in Donetsk Oblast. On our way back, the guys asked if we had any gas cylinders. They didn't even have anything to heat water with, because they were given very weak generators. When I promised that I would bring them a generator next time, they were surprised. And during the conversation, I asked the SBU officer if there were many volunteers who came here now. I was just curious. And he said that the number of volunteers has actually decreased many times, even compared to last summer.

On those who don't care

I think these people will realize how much faster they should have been involved in the process if, God forbid, the war comes to them. I come to the West and there is no smell of war there. Everything is fine there, people live peacefully and do not think about what is happening. Even the incoming strikes. There are fewer of these missiles, and Shahed drones flying there, and people do not feel what war is. And when you come to the east and go to a gas station, people say that the military is their only hope. They say they used to worry, but now they just live in despair. It seems to me that people who do not experience what war is like will not convince even themselves how important it is to help.

On personal losses

I have a lot of acquaintances and friends who, unfortunately, died. There are those who have been missing for a long time. For me, as a volunteer, the hardest thing to hear now is when the guys you help die. Unfortunately, there are already a lot of such cases. When guys just write: "You were delivering charging stations there. There are neither stations nor guys there". A KAB guided aerial bomb arrived and there is no position anymore. And there are many such stories.

There are days when I hear such news, I cry. This is probably the only thing that can make me cry as a man right now. It's just emotions that you can't hold back. Because here you come, hug these guys, talk to them. Some time passes, and you receive such news. These emotions have to come out of you because if you accumulate them, you can break down.