Kyiv military checkpoint and a Dutch soccer-mom turned war hero

After spending some time with my friends Volodymyr and Rita, it was time to jump back in my red van and head to Kyiv. I was scheduled to meet my handler in Kyiv to coordinate the hand-off of my van and all its contents and then meet Sytske and Willem at a cafe downtown.

… and now the rest of the story -

Military checkpoint at the highway entrance to Kyiv on the Kharkiv side

Driving the road from Poltava to Kyiv is mostly empty other than people coming from the Frontlines. There are large trucks, military convoys, buses with wounded troops, and very little else. There were other civilian cars, including a few families with all of their belongings going west, but for the most part, there were not a lot of private cars.

Just outside Kyiv was a military checkpoint. Since there was little traffic, I had very little warning, and they were able to see me from a mile away… in a big red loaded down van with Dutch license plates… coming from the direction of the front!

The teenager with the machine gun was waving nearly everyone through without stopping… until he got to me. I was immediately flagged to stop. I wasn’t quite sure how this was gonna go once they found out I was an American. Keep in mind this was within 10 days of the Zelinski meeting at the White House. US aid and intelligence had just been turned back on a couple days before after the Russians had taken full advantage and killed a higher number of Ukrainians during that time.

Guard: “ти хто ти звідки І що вони тут робили?”

Me: “Uhhhh. English?”

Guard (much louder and slower): “ти хто ти звідки І що вони тут робили?”

Me: “I got nothing… and you don’t seem to speak English.”

The guard was starting to tense, so I had no other option than to provide my passport and hope I was not about to spend quality time in a Ukraine prison cell. Much to my relief, the guard took my passport, smiled, and said in very broken English, “Ah! American! Thank you! You go!”

With that, I said the most gracious, “Dyakuyuh,” (thank you) I could muster and was on my way.

My handler, Yuri, in Kyiv was one of the more interesting people I’ve ever met. Yuri is about my age (mid-fifties) with a larger than life personality. He attended University in the US getting a law degree and eventually becoming a US federal prosecutor. When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Yuri returned to Ukraine and joined the first military unit he could find. He was sent to the front without a weapon and placed in charge of manufacturing and throwing Molotov Cocktails at the enemy. At the end of the war, he remained in Ukraine where he passed the equivalent of the Ukraine Bar Exam and practiced law there.

When the Russians invaded in 2021, Yuri was a little too old to join the front line troops, so he organized a civilian brigade to support the frontline troops. His job is to source equipment for the brigades he supports - everything from body-armor and drone jammers, vehicles and batteries. Whatever his brigades need, he gets.

Enter our fearless leader, Sytske. Sytske is the CEO of Ukraine Aid Ops who was responsible for one-half of the planning that went into the Convoy I’ve been driving for. Ukraine Aid Ops is rare among western NGOs delivering aid to Ukraine in that it delivers donations specifically for the military. Sytske is one of Yuri’s partners for sourcing equipment through donations, some of which I brought with me, including the big red van I’d been driving since Lviv.

Yuri and I met near his warehouse where I handed off the van, its contents, and all the paperwork. Yuri is full of energy and insisted I join him for some tea at a local cafe before taking off to meet Sytske, Paul, and Willem for lunch. We spent about 40 minutes together… and I don’t think I’ve ever made a friend faster. I could have hung out all afternoon. Great guy with incredible life experiences. I was sad to leave when my Bolt driver showed up, but I agreed to stay in touch. I would also plan to spend far more time the next time I came through Kyiv. Super interesting friend.

Yuri on far left, Sytske in the middle

I then jumped into a Bolt (think: EU Uber, but who pays their drivers fairly) where I met my driver, Denny. Denny grew up listening to American music and watching American movies. His English was surprisingly good, but sounded a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger crossed with Justin Bieber… Like most Ukrainians, he’s very proud of his country, and was eager to show me as much as he could on our ~20 minute drive through Kyiv to my lunch. He even slowed down some on the Dnipro River bridge so I could snap a few pictures. After conversations about American food, politics (everyone knew if I was in Ukraine, I did not vote for Trump), and biking, Denny dropped me at my restaurant where Sytske, Paul and Willem were all waiting for me.

Dnipro River

After spending so much time outside Kyiv, and starting my morning in Poltava, I was shocked by where I was standing. Downtown Kyiv is a beautiful European city with high-end shops and restaurants lining beautiful cobble-stone streets. The best description I can give is to say it’s a cross between Prague and Copenhagen. There are no signs of the Soviet occupation that ended in 1991. It’s truly a beautiful city. And true to what I’d seen throughout the country, Any missile damaged structures were repaired in record time meaning that there are few signs of war.

Me, Sytske, Willem and Paul at a fancy cafe in Kyiv... far from the war

… which I learned causes problems.

Kyiv is where many of the wounded fighters from the frontline end up to recover. Seeing wounded men and women in uniform with different appendages bandaged was likely the only sign I saw in Kyiv that the country was at war. For these men and women, it was a bit upsetting to see no signs of war when their lives on the frontlines are so hellish. Young people in cafes, street musicians, tourist shops, fine restaurants all existing as if everything was normal. I kinda get it.

My restaurant could have been plucked out of Prague or Brussels or Copenhagen. A trendy interior with American music playing in the background while waitstaff flitted around taking orders for wealthy customers. If it were warmer, there were more seats on the sidewalk outside. At every turn I was again struck by how far this seemed from a country at war. In keeping with the Ukraine theme… the food was outstanding!

After finishing lunch and continuing to hang around, Sytske was very curious about what I thought of Yuri. When I told her I was close to blowing her off to spend more time with Yuri, she immediately picked up her cell and called Yuri to ask him to join us. He was in between tasks and was able to join us for about an hour before taking off again to meet up with some of the military folks he supports.

I had a few more hours before my overnight train to Lviv. Sytske offered that I could hang out with her and Paul at her apartment in downtown Kyiv. For those curious, a 1 bedroom apartment of about 900 square feet (comfortable, not tiny) in a newish building with parking, a great view of the city and a guard at the front desk goes for ~$400/month. Paul went and took a nap while Sytske and I talked more about her work in Ukraine.

This might be the best entrepreneur origin story I’ve ever heard -

In the Netherlands there are football (soccer) clubs everywhere. Each club has their own home field, stadium seating, and a clubhouse with a small bar. Football clubs here are serious. The clubs support kid and adult players. They are also a big social draw for club participants (did I mention they always have their own bar???), and act as a community hub for the surrounding neighborhoods

Sytske was her family’s club’s manager. This is no trivial job. You manage all the operations and logistics of the club, manage all the coaches, manage all the schedules, and even deal with the parents (who are not nearly as entitled and stooopid as American soccer parents). When the war in Ukraine broke out, Sytske felt strongly that she wanted to do something to help Ukraine. She believed that her experience in running a football club would be very valuable in running a war-time NGO. After doing her own research, she discovered that there were a ton of groups working on the humanitarian side, but almost no one outside Ukraine supporting the military. Like any good entrepreneur, she saw an opportunity and dove in head first. She joined Ukraine Aid Ops shortly after it was formed under its founding CEO. Within a short period of time, the founding CEO stepped aside and she took over like a house on fire. She began sourcing body armor and helmets, and then broadened to drone jammers, batteries, generators, and vehicles. Although donations were steady at the beginning of the war, she saw that this would not last and developed a business side to augment donations. She convinced the military brigades she was supporting to bring back battlefield items that could be repurposed into art by either frontline troops or local artists in Kyiv. Not too long after, she had Ukraine’s biggest actors and actresses creating art objects, doing the packing, and even running boxes to shipping companies (everyone in Ukraine is doing something for the war effort). In short, she parlayed her football club skills into marshalling a civilian army of volunteers to run a non-profit business that directly provided items to the military brigades she was supporting. When this war is over, I’m gonna personally intro Sytske to Angels and VCs the moment she comes up with an idea. I don’t say this lightly… Sytske is a entrepreneur bad-ass!

Because of her business with Ukraine Aid Ops, Sytske’s apartment was a trove of spent artillery rounds, single-use anti-tank rocket-launchers, shrapnel, bullets, russian and Ukraine drones, and even a few aluminum panels from Russian jets that had been shot-down… where half was made into art, and half had just been retrieved from the battlefields. It was quite incredible to see all of this in a Dutch soccer-mom’s fancy apartment in downtown Kyiv 

Artwork made from Russian drone shrapnel... hanging on Sytske's apartment wall

For those interested in helping Ukraine, check out https://ukraineaidops.org/. From there, I recommend checking out the store which extends into the “Victory Gallery” section.

Around 9pm, Sytske and Paul walked with me through downtown Kyin to the main train station where I would be catching my 10:20pm overnight train to Lviv. In her incredible kindness, Sytske gave me a Ukraine flag from the Arkan 108 Mountain Brigade for Alex. Wow. Just wow.

And now I would start the next phase of this incredible adventure… getting out of Ukraine and home to Laura and Alex in Amsterdam.

… and then the missile siren at the Kyiv train station went off … Oh лайно.