{"id":739,"date":"2025-01-02T16:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T16:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=739"},"modified":"2025-01-02T16:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T16:26:14","slug":"the-invisible-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2025\/01\/the-invisible-front\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invisible Front\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russian Exiles Who Crossed Lines to Aid Ukraine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Roman (right) flew with 26 duffel bags of aid for Ukrainian troops<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mariel Povolny<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Organizer\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    It was February 27, 2022\u2014 three days after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Organizer and his friend drove a van loaded with children\u2019s camping gear from a neighbouring Eastern European country into the mountains of Western Ukraine. As political talking heads declared that Kyiv would fall in days, the Organizer, an older Russian businessman living in exile, knew he couldn\u2019t stand by. Despite the considerable risks for a Russian citizen helping those whom the Kremlin considers enemies of the state, he felt compelled to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That night, he started packing his things to join the Ukrainian fighters. \u201cThen my wife came in, she said, \u2018Who the hell is going to raise our son?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He decided instead to deliver supplies to Ukrainian troops. Travelling with Russian passports, he and his companion needed an escort from the Ukrainian military to cross into Ukraine. When they arrived, their contact wasn\u2019t there yet. Soldiers examined their passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWhen those soldiers on the border saw our Russian passports, I really thought they\u2019d shoot us on the spot,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Organizer grew up in Russia, building several successful businesses before mob violence forced him out. He moved to a new country in Eastern Europe and started a successful hospitality business there. Though he lives abroad, the Organizer is incredibly cautious about revealing details of his mission and asked to remain anonymous for this piece. In Russia, even minor expressions of anti-war sentiment can result in imprisonment. His concern extends to loved ones still living under the Kremlin’s reach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He never considered asking others to make the trips in his place. \u201cWho would I ask to take that kind of risk? I\u2019m not some general who can send people to their deaths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That February 27th trip was the first of seven the Organizer would make to Ukraine. The effort began with camping supplies he\u2019d accumulated over decades of leading mountaineering trips in Eastern Europe. He then reached out to friends in the United States who fundraised and delivered supplies to him: boots, helmets, bulletproof vests, and hemostatic control tourniquets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWe brought anything that we could get our hands on. Everything except weapons,\u201d  he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The supplies went directly to Ukrainian troops. Some wrote letters, thanking the Organizer and other volunteers for their support. Many of these men have now been killed in the fighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Thank you letters from Ukrainian troops<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It wasn\u2019t just Americans or Russians living in the U.S. who supported his efforts. \u201cSome of my friends in Moscow sent very large amounts of money for me to use to buy supplies,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very risky for them, and it\u2019s still dangerous. They could go to prison for 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Organizer\u2019s trips continued until his Ukrainian contacts assured him that they were receiving sufficient aid from other sources. Though he\u2019s no longer making these direct trips, his commitment to Ukrainians hasn\u2019t wavered. He now hosts refugee families in one of his hotels. \u201cEvery family has their own tragedy. They\u2019ve become resigned. They\u2019ve lost any hope of resisting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI feel sorry for the thousands of Ukrainians dying, and for the thousands of Russians dying too,\u201d he said. \u201cThose Russian kids could also be my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Courier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      A key member of this effort, Roman, had the option to remain anonymous for this story.  \u201cI\u2019m already a traitor to my country, you can use my name,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Roman left Russia 30 years ago along with his partner, his seven-year-old daughter, and his ex-wife.  \u201cPart of it was professional, but I don\u2019t think that was most of it. Living as a gay man and having to hide, that was hard,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Roman didn\u2019t consider himself a political person for most of his life. \u201cI started to feel like that only in 2014 when he [Putin] annexed Crimea. I knew it was the precursor to something bigger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      He started posting on social media then. In the years since he’s lost his relationship with almost everyone he still knows in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      “I’ve had to block most of them on Facebook. We can’t discuss things,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      He remembers the morning of February 24, 2022, when he turned on his TV and saw that Russian troops were invading Ukraine. “I was in my kitchen. I opened a bottle of vodka, had a few shots. I couldn’t believe it\u2014I thought Putin just wanted to provoke, to scare them,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      A friend called him a few days later. She knew someone delivering aid directly to Ukrainian fighters \u2014 the Organizer. He needed supplies flown from the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Roman was on board. “I was happy to help. Governments are slow, aid is slow; nothing was getting in,” he said. He travelled in late March 2022 with 26 duffel bags full of socks, boots, and winter clothes. He carried two bags of headlamps onto the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      He didn’t worry much about repercussions for himself or his parents, who still lived in Russia. “Some official called my parents at one point asking where I was. I’m still registered at their address. I think they also sent some papers asking for me,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Earlier this fall, Roman went to Ukraine to visit his cousins. He flew to Moldova and took a bus five hours to Odessa. The trip was only possible because he holds an American passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      “At first, it seems like there are no changes. The buses run, people go to work. Then you hear the sirens,” he said. “My family, they’re so used to it they don’t go anywhere to hide.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Roman believes the West has repeatedly enabled Putin by failing to take a firm stand against his aggression. He likened it to the Allied powers’ appeasement of Hitler during the Munich Agreement, which effectively sanctioned the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. “They thought if they gave him what he wanted, he would stop,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      “This war will end in negotiations. Ukraine will lose territory. It won’t stop Putin\u2014he will attack again. But if the Ukrainians are smart, they will be ready,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Russian Exiles Who Crossed Lines to Aid Ukraine Roman (right) flew with 26 duffel bags of aid for Ukrainian troops By Mariel Povolny The Organizer\u00a0 It was February 27, 2022\u2014 three days after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Organizer…<\/p>\n

      Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}