ElitExpert continues a series of interviews with the heads of humanitarian and volunteer organizations of the Odesa region, who participated in the First Closed Charity Auction "Volunteer Amulet".
Today we are talking with the founder of the "Unia" Charitable Foundation, Yuriy Besarab, a professional sailor who exchanged all the beauty of the world for his native land and the help of the Armed Forces.
— Tell us about how your volunteering started...
— In general, I have been in the volunteer movement since 2016. Since I used to live in Kherson, I started helping the guys who were on rotation near Kakhovka. This unit had just left Ilovaisk and at that time it was local assistance to a separate group.
4 months before the start of the full-scale war, I settled in Odessa, bought an apartment here. I took a step that I really didn't want to do, just for the sake of my sick parents. They are from the Mykolayiv region, from the village where I myself come from, but they did not want to move to Kherson.
When I decided to move to Odessa, at that time I was very doubtful about it, because I had a nice apartment in one of the best buildings in Kherson, with good repairs. But still, I sold it and bought an apartment in Odessa.
If that had not happened, and I would have stayed in Kherson, I believe that I would not have been released from there for anything, maybe I would have been killed. Because the occupiers consider patriots like me to be tools of "terrorism and Nazism."
On February 26, 2022, my friend from Batumi called me and offered to go with his family to Georgia, where an apartment was already waiting for us. But, I said that I will not go anywhere. Given the opportunity, finances, I will not go anywhere.
I worked at sea for 21 years, traveled all over the world, visited almost all countries. And I sat down and began to think - if I leave, where and when I will return. And I could not answer myself. This was my decision. If my fate is to die in Ukraine, then I will die. If I am destined to survive, I will survive. If there is an occupation of Odessa, I know for sure that I will not surrender. Whether I will run in the catacombs, or where, but to the last cartridge.
The only thing that scared me was the possibility of being captured. I am afraid of torture, I would rather lay hands on myself than submit to torture.
Well, after that I decided that I would not just sit in Odessa when the best boys and girls were fighting, but I would help them with everything I could. I had savings, I started spending them, then I made connections with friends abroad, in Canada, and we started helping...
- Civilian or military?
— In the first half of the year, they helped everyone very powerfully, both civilians and military. With the military, we chose this strategy — to help in the field of tactical medicine. Because at that time there was a critical need: almost no one had first-aid kits, blood-stopping bandages, tourniquets, absolutely nothing.
Friends from Poland also helped, they met help in Warsaw, and from there on our volunteer bus they took: hemostatic agents, tourniquets, Israeli bandages, and many other things. They also helped civilians with baby food.
That's how we started to purchase various help: some by ourselves, some with other volunteers, and take everything to Kherson. At that time, there was a problem with the medicine "thyroxine", in the first months it practically disappeared in Ukraine. We bought it in Poland, we had to go to all the doctors, because it was sold only by prescription - and we managed to buy about a thousand packages for the Kherson region. It was distributed quietly, because the drug is rare and very necessary, and due to its shortage on the black market, it cost ten times more. A pack of medicine there cost up to 100 dollars — at a time when in Poland we bought it for three or four dollars, and of course, it was given to people for free.
— Do you have an official volunteer organization?
— I just opened a charity fund, and then only in order not to accept money into my personal bank accounts. Everything should be convenient, open and transparent.
Now we continue this activity - and very successfully. For example, we complete first-aid kits according to the NATO class. American hemostatic drug, tourniquet, scissors and anti-burn drugs - all fighters need.
We buy all the drugs in the USA, they come here, and here we complete them at the request of our guys.
Of course, all this takes place under photo and video reports - both from my side and from the side of the military, who receive all this.
By the way, my communication with foreign friends takes place on the basis of trust, because they were even deceived several times - they sent someone funds for body armor, and then - neither funds nor body armor. Therefore, now they work mostly only with me.
— Are you and your partners feeling war-weary now, and what are you doing about it?
— There is no time for fatigue or even to think about it yet. I am at work all the time. For example, I give 70-80% of the help I receive to the boys. I practically do not sit in Odessa. I am transferring to the Kherson direction to the 124th brigade, 196th battalion, these are my boys, with whom I have been since the first days.
Once they stood under Bashtanka without ammunition and enough clothes and medicine.. But now they are dressed like cyborgs, and this is partly my merit, and it supports me.
I have been to Konstantyvka, Druzhkivka, Donetsk region many times, and the guys need a lot right now. When they call and say: Yura, we came under fire yesterday, there is no more Starlink and no communication, then we have to turn around urgently, write requests, call Canada... Such urgent requests happen often: and the uniform was bought in Turkey, when the entire market of the "Seventh kilometer" was completely closed.
— Have you never wanted to leave the country?
— I had the opportunity to live in Los Angeles. An old friend of mine lives there, she almost pulled me out by the ear. But I love my country.
For 21 years at sea, I could have stayed abroad, lived in any country. I had opportunities - I didn't. If I didn't do it in peacetime, I didn't do it even more in wartime.
I have traveled all over the world, and I can honestly say that we are a very cool country. We have two seas, we have three gorgeous rivers, we have such beautiful nature...
I was offered to stay in New Zealand and in Spain. But I am energetically tied to my homeland. This is where I feel like a free person.
— That was my next question...
- Yes, a free person. Under all the circumstances that exist today. But now I have been living for the second year with a feeling of lack of oxygen. I'm constantly on the phone somewhere, I'm constantly in touch with guys, I worry too much. And even from time to time I feel that I am burning out. Sometimes I want to come home and cry directly into the pillow at certain moments.
- From impotence?
- I will give an example. You come to the guys, personally hand over some things, get to know each other, shake hands, spend a day with them and leave. And two weeks later you are there again, and they tell you: do you remember, you gave your personal gloves to that little boy? And he is no longer there, he died. And it tears you to pieces. Every such situation hurts your heart and soul. You can't pull it out of your head like a flash drive, clean it, and then insert it again and that's it, reset. We are not robots.
But there are often such situations when the turnstiles or armor plates I gave saved the lives of military personnel and they wrote me letters of gratitude. And then you realize that you have not lived your life in vain.
At the same time, we already have tens of thousands of boys with PTSD today. They do not sleep at night, they feel the rejection of society, they feel it very vulnerable.
— Have you come across the fact that now in society, in addition to the military, volunteers, patriots who are ready to give the last penny, there are people who absolutely do not care about the war?
— I see it every day and there are more and more such people. For every hundred Ukrainians, there are 20 truly mentally strong people, and 80 are indifferent. Such people even tell me that they will contribute 500 hryvnias each month - despite the fact that he earns 3000 dollars and can spend 5 thousand hryvnias in a restaurant in an evening.
It is necessary for every Ukrainian to understand that they did not attack someone "somewhere out there", if you live in Lviv or Uzhgorod or Odesa, for example, but they attacked all of us. Because Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kherson are us.
When some famous people die at the front, for example, "Mujahed" or "Da Vinici", then immediately there are a lot of posts in social networks - not everyone posted it on their page, saying, this is what a hero he was, what a great man he was. But do you have the right to put their life story on your page? Do you have the right to talk about them? What did you do so that they did not die, so that their units had something better. You just take it, get your money, and dress at least one fighter. And then you can come home and say in front of the mirror - "I'm afraid to fight, but at least I helped that guy who is not afraid to fight." And it's not like some men are afraid to go to the store, so as not to meet the TCC, and send their women. Maybe I'm very emotional, but I think you either fight or help, or you don't open your mouth.
The country is currently in a very difficult period. We all have to understand that if we do not close those moments that we did not like for 30 years in a row now, in this time, then we will transfer it to the shoulders of our children.
Olena Ovchinnikova communicated
