Denmark is not on the sidelines in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
From the start, Danes have been helping Ukrainians by donating items and humanitarian assistance.
One of them is Jesper Lindholt, a businessman originally from Aarhus. He married a Ukrainian woman and runs an information technology company in Kyiv. From the start, he has been supplying Ukrainians at the war front with used cars from Denmark. Ukrainian civilian volunteers from the Initiative E+ organization help him get customs clearances.
“Jesper pulled all of his strings there in Denmark to get as many cars as possible,” says Valentyna Varava, the Initiative E+ leader and a member of the Volunteers Council with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. “He involved nearly all of his relatives in Denmark in helping Ukrainian army, so we gradually got acquainted with nearly whole his family.”
They’ve shipped almost 40 ambulance cars and off-roaders to various Ukrainian combat units since the start of Russia’s war.
His passion is easy to explain.
“Donbas is the frontline for all Europe and European values,” Lindholt said. “Ukraine is the first nation from the Soviet or Russian heart to try to break free.”
His volunteer activities in Ukraine go far beyond the military realm.
As a member of the philanthropic Kyiv Multinational Rotary Club, Lindholt and Initiative E+ have provided more than 500 computers to schools near the war front.
“Those are used computers bought from NATO military bases in Europe,” Varava said. “They are quite good for teaching kids though. Together with Jesper, we repair them a bit, insert new hard disks, and install Linux, a freeware operating system.”
Soon, Lindholt and Varava’s team also plan to establish an educational IT camp in the Carpathians for children from the embattled Donbas.
Ukrainians living in Denmark also want to help their homeland.
One of them is Olena Blazhenko, who married to a Danish man.
“The story of her life is very tragic,” Varava recalls. “Soon after the war in Ukraine started, she learned that was terminally ill with cancer. Olena knew she had very little time left, so she committed to do as much as possible right to the end. She died in early 2016, having provided lots of humanitarian aid to Donbas from Denmark.”
Leif Bülow, a former Danish army soldier, is a member of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Bulow has spent two years on both sides of the war front.
He was deeply affected by the Russian-backed separatists’ shelling and shooting at civilians, as well as the propaganda.
“I saw the aggression, especially towards OSCE, but also the hatred among separatist soldiers against Ukraine itself. And by being two years at the frontline, I made some good friends within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
In late March 2017, Bülow quit the OSCE after three years and settled with his wife, an ex-OSCE colleague, near the war-front city of Kramatorsk, some 530 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
There, he decided to start helping those who suffered heavy injuries at war, both veterans and civilians. Together with two local entrepreneurs, he developed a 3D printing technology of producing various hand prosthesis, including models with electrically driven artificial fingers.
“But for the time being I am using my own money on the project and hope to get some donors who can support us,” he continues. “I am also trying to get funds in Denmark to support our project.”
“I have further met so many kind and helpful people here in Ukraine and I feel I will give something back.”
Editor’s Note: World in Ukraine takes a look at Ukraine’s bilateral relations with different nations. All articles are written independently from advertisers. To sponsor this news feature, please contact the Kyiv Post’s sales team at [email protected] or call 591-7788.
