Inaction is something we cannot tolerate

Oksana Bulda (left) and Liza Bezvershenko (right)

It was at first more Ukrainian, then we had more Belgians on board, now we are an international organisation. We were first established rather as a lobbying organisation, however, now we cover all possible topics related to Ukraine, such as humanitarian aid, political lobbying, refugee support, cultural events, etc. We have established a platform to share experiences and information amongst experts not only on Ukraine, but also on Europe, and now also on Russia. We have a journal, Brussels Ukraïna Review, in which we share opinions on different matters, from business development in Ukraine, to political escalations, culture and our experience of working in Brussels. We also have an app, which is called “Leads Ukraine”, it gathers information about Ukraine-related events all over Europe.

What were your first impressions when the invasion started on February 24th? What was your first team meeting like, how did you organise yourselves?

LIZA BEZVERSHENKO: I wasn’t a member of PU before the full-scale invasion started. I happened to be in Brussels when Russia invaded and we were just looking for ways to protest and bring awareness about everything that was happening. The invasion started on Thursday, so you can imagine how many protests we had on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday … it was Oksana who was organising them. That weekend I approached Maryna, one of our directors, and asked her if they needed help with coordination because there were so many people like me who just wanted to be engaged. It is difficult to explain what we were all going through but I can tell you that what each of us needed was a sense of community, understanding and support. Unfortunately, despite all the help we have received from foreigners, this is something that could be understood only by Ukrainians.

Our first team meeting within the new structure was held on February 28th, it gathered some who were, like myself, not members of PU yet, but wanted to take leadership and action. Seeing all these people who decided to act, despite all of the emotional trauma that we were all carrying, gave me hope and adrenaline to be more productive. Afterwards, we had hundreds of people coming to help, our office was like a never-ending meeting room. We had foreigners, Ukrainians, MEPs, heads of humanitarian organisations, refugees, and grandmas, who didn’t know how to help, so they were just making coffee for every member of the team, or cleaning our office space. One of our friends came and asked, “Do you guys eat?” and we said “No, actually, we forget to eat” – so he organised free lunches for us, which were delivered to our office for several months. We got so much help and support, I have never experienced anything like this in my life.

Oksana do you have any observations as to how the organisation operated before and after the start of the full-scale invasion?

OB: I’ve been a PU member since 2018, when I was based in Kyiv. Back then, I was mostly engaged in helping with the journal, but also launching local projects in Ukraine. PU was more oriented towards politics, for example, we had online schools to empower women and young girls to try their chances in politics. Now the organisation is much bigger, it has gone through quite a rapid transformation, sort of from start-up mode to one of the biggest Ukraine-related hubs in Europe.

When it comes to the escalation, we had already known that it would be quite a tragic situation for Ukraine. Just the day before the invasion we had a protest, but many people still did not understand the level of escalation that was going to take place. I remember talking to our partners and friends from the UN and all the bigger organisations, who you’d think would have first-hand information, but they all said that “Russia is not going to attack, it is just an escalation, it is just a bluff” while our message was “we do believe that it is going to happen, that’s why you, as a responsible organisation, have to prepare yourself”. Unfortunately, the invasion happened when nobody expected it, however, we, as an organisation, and I believe also the majority of Ukrainians and Eastern European friends of Ukraine, knew that it was going to happen.

We then shifted to cover all possible ways to support Ukraine. On my side, it was mostly about protests because I knew how to approach the Belgian police and fill in all the documents in order to get permission. We all stopped our full-time jobs in Belgium and switched to full-time volunteering.

LB: Before, PU focused mostly on advocacy, manifestations, social media and PR. After February 24th, we launched four new streams. The first was humanitarian aid – since the very first day we were very decisive on our position that we can fundraise for and supply protective equipment. This was very hard to do at first because the EU was not yet very certain on its approach towards supplying weapons to Ukraine. Many foreigners did not want to donate money to protective equipment. The second stream was helping all the displaced Ukrainians who were coming to Belgium. We had to think in advance what would be the solution to the housing problem, how we would integrate refugees into Belgian society, and how we would help them with all the bureaucratic questions. Our third stream was fundraising. We started to organise events, we launched donation campaigns for aid, protective equipment and medical supplies. The fourth new stream was coordination, since there were so many of us. I think that in the first few months we had around 100 people that we had to manage.

You mentioned that some of you had to give up your jobs and switch to volunteering. Are you still volunteering or are you paid for your work for PU?

OB: I was a full-time lawyer in Belgium. I worked for an IT company, but since the start of the invasion I could not work anymore, I was on sick leave and I was dedicating myself fully to volunteering. However, as Liza mentioned, it’s mostly Ukrainians or our friends from Eastern Europe who are able to fully understand what we are going through. Due to my high involvement with the PU, I lost my full-time job. However, for me, helping my country is the priority, so I am still a full-time volunteer, and I will remain so until Ukraine prevails.

LB: I also had a full-time job, I was working with Ukrainian civil society but at the same time I wanted to do something visible in Brussels as well, so I was helping Ukrainian activism in Ukraine and I also joined Ukrainian activism in Brussels. Now I also have a full-time job but not at PU, I’m volunteering outside of my working hours and this is the typical situation for the majority of us working for PU.

I would like to delve more into the different streams Liza described. How many refugees are still in Belgium and what kind of support do you provide to them?

LB: As of today, according to the statistics from the Belgian government, there are over 59,000 displaced Ukrainians in Belgium. These are the people who are registered and have received temporary protection status, we do not know how many are unregistered. Within the first months, we organised a first warehouse for distribution of humanitarian aid, where people started to bring food, clothes, even furniture. The biggest challenge at the time was of course the Belgian bureaucracy. My brother had to stand in a queue from three in the morning to three in the afternoon to get registered, some people had to stay overnight. It is not up to me to assess how easy this was to organise but I know that people were very frustrated that it was taking so long during the first weeks. Then it got better. Belgium organised an online registration system and people started to receive some social support.

From our side, we were organising aid and starting to think of how to engage people and unite them, because while some people were staying with their families in Belgium, some came without knowing anybody here. We decided to organise activities to make them feel better, first of all psychologically. The Ukrainian cultural centre was created, it is now in our office and we have art and dance therapy, language courses, psychological support, physiological consultation and consultations on integration in Belgium. We also organised some projects for people who started looking for jobs.

In terms of humanitarian aid sent to Ukraine, what kind of products have you been sending and how have you organised it logistically?

OB: We chose to mostly focus on supporting our defenders, providing them, upon request, with certain items that they needed, which we could buy in Europe, but also with extra material which is not for military use, for example food, medical kits, clothing, etc. We try to dedicate all of our events towards raising funds to support our defenders.  One of our major achievements was that we were able to purchase an ambulance that was delivered to the frontline. We were also able to purchase vehicles for the army. In addition, we support some of our volunteers whose relatives are on the frontlines – sometimes we receive lists of items from them, which can include anything. Soon we will do a trip to Kharkiv and the recently liberated territories to deliver humanitarian aid. We have two more upcoming requests for military support from one of the battalions in which one of my relatives is currently serving, they need vehicles, bulletproof vests and helmets.

We took the decision to focus more on military support because the biggest struggle in the West has been with providing weapons. Everybody is ready to provide diapers but when it comes to bulletproof vests it becomes a problem. A lot of people have concerns that they are dual-use goods but a bulletproof vest is saving your life, you can’t choose to use it to kill somebody. It is a very special feature of PU that we have taken this direction, and it is not easy to buy bulletproof vests in comparison with other humanitarian aid items, as they are sensitive goods. In the beginning we worked a lot with the Ukrainian embassy in Belgium, they organised the logistics to deliver any type of goods to Ukraine. Over time the embassy has focused more on humanitarian aid rather than military aid, so we had to look for other ways of delivering these products.

Luckily there are enough people, Belgians and Ukrainians, who drive their own cars and deliver products to Western Ukraine, where we have volunteers who then deliver the goods to the people who have asked for them. We are also in direct contact with the ministry of defence and some other institutions in Ukraine, which also support us in the smooth and certified clearing of these products on the border. If we have the opportunity to buy our own vehicles we just pack them with anything we can and drive ourselves to Ukraine.

How do you contribute to keeping Ukraine at the top of the international agenda, particularly considering that you are based in Brussels?

OB: When it comes to protests, it has become more difficult to gather people and engage journalists, so we’re trying to be more creative. Just yesterday we collaborated with several other organisations, so the topic was not only Ukraine, but also Georgia and Moldova, and this brings another context into our activities. To invite more people to participate we need to set up a play of sorts. Yesterday’s protest was about staging a pretend vote to designate the Russian mission to the EU as an exclusion zone. We also try to invite more high-ranking politicians and speakers. Moreover, we have a very strong PR team who write all of the press releases, launch events, create social media campaigns, contact journalists – combining these elements helps a lot. One of the best examples was when we had a protest in front of the Brussels opera theatre, which had just launched a Russian season. Before holding a protest we tried to contact them and tell them that it was inappropriate to hold such a season. When there was no reaction, our European volunteers helped us to write an open letter, which the PR team then sent to journalists. We then organised a protest, but also with a creative performance. As a result, we have been able to enter into a dialogue with the theatre and now they are in partnership with us, trying to promote Ukrainian culture more.

LB: Indeed, the synergy of our working groups creates a very big impact in Brussels. Besides the very loud and visible protests we also have a very strong advocacy team. We have specialists on Germany, NATO, different institutions, and together we discuss and decide what is the best way to approach them. We talk to the permanent representations of EU member states in Brussels, we were also invited to speak with the office of Charles Michel, where we presented our priority list of needs, which are (at the moment of recording the interview): more sanctions, designating Russia as a terrorist state and designating the Wagner Group as a terrorist group. We also advocate for confiscating Russian assets and transferring the money for Ukraine’s recovery. I think it is this combination of loud and visible street protests together with closed-door events that puts us in a very good place to be the go-to organisation for Ukrainian civil society.

How do you cope with working in these circumstances on an everyday basis, how do you support each other as a team?

OB: For me it is just about being among people who share what I’m going through. I still remember when I had to do my full-time job and then I would go to the PU office and as soon as I would enter I would feel relief. It’s just unbelievable how much the community and the right people in the right place can do, that’s why we all lived in that office almost 24/7 in the beginning. My whole family was in Ukraine when the escalation started and when you hear people’s stories it is just heart-breaking but when you are together, you see that yes, it is difficult, but we know that in the end we will receive funds, we will get the attention that we need and we will help Ukraine – this empowers you to make the impossible possible.

During one of the EU summit protests it was very difficult for me, I understood that for so long we had been in the same place, asking the EU for the same stuff and there was still very limited progress and I just felt bad and had to sit down and have a moment for myself. Then one of the journalists came and said that “you deserve the right to have your moment but Ukraine needs you.” One of our volunteers also came to me and said, “today I saw a video of one of our defenders fighting alone in the trenches against two Russian soldiers. They dropped a grenade onto him, he caught it and threw it back.” The fight was caught on a drone, our defender sacrificed his life for free Ukraine. The volunteer told me, “Can you imagine how it must feel for him to be there in such a moment? That’s why we here, in Brussels, in peaceful Europe, we have to get ourselves together and keep going no matter what.” I still remember that conversation, I had my moment, and then went directly back into the crowd and we kept asking until our requests were heard.

LB: I agree with Oksana. The inspiration from the people that surround us and the people who are fighting in Ukraine, this is what keeps us going because if they can fight so bravely, we have to be brave enough to go out onto the streets, meet our partners and decision-makers and voice bravely everything that we need. We need to be consistent and insist on increasing weapon deliveries and sanctions and we will never be tired of doing this because this should go on until Ukraine wins. We will never settle for any peace agreement which will be against Ukraine’s interests and will violate Ukrainian sovereignty. 

Any final thoughts?

LB: It is very important to understand that this is not only a war between Ukraine and Russia, we are all a part of it and inaction is also a negative contribution to the war. Inaction is something we cannot tolerate because it is really possible to help from any place you are currently in, on your own frontline, whether it is the informational, humanitarian or military space. Maybe you’re a journalist, maybe you bake cookies, you can always approach us in Brussels and we can fundraise, donate and help. We all have to take responsibility for everything that is happening because we cannot allow this complete violation of human rights, European values, human values, to happen in the 21st century.  

OB: I want to highlight that we need more weapons – this is my message, one that just last year would be very unusual even for myself. It is unbelievable to see that during our protests children know the names of the fighter jets or what kind of guns our army needs. We have many requests not just from Ukrainian soldiers, but also from the International Legion. It is our joint effort to keep peace in Europe and in the world in general. That is why if you can donate or help PU get some items that could save the life of a soldier, contact us because that’s where Ukraine needs the help the most. Many Western Europeans have concerns that giving more weapons might escalate the situation, but it has already been escalated as much as possible. We can win this war only together and I wish there was another way, but unfortunately the only way we see is the military solution to achieve peace in Europe. And in order to achieve this peace, we need more weapons.

Oksana Bulda is an international legal advisor. She is actively involved in volunteering at the Legal Hundred NGO, where she provides advice to soldiers and temporarily displaced people on legal matters related to their status. She also volunteers at the NGO Promote Ukraine, where she is involved in awareness raising and lobbying for Ukrainian interests in Europe.

Liza Bezvershenko is a volunteer coordinator at Promote Ukraine focusing on advocacy, awareness raising and fundraising for Ukraine. She is an alumna of the College of Europe in Natolin.

aid, assistance, Europe, European Union, help, humanitarian, Ukraine