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Your charitable foundation started working even before the war. Why does the business need charity?
I never considered myself a volunteer. Businesses must be socially responsible. If you want to live in your city, you have to change what you don’t like. And that’s how you influence other people. I never perceived it as volunteering. When a person presents a business card and «Volunteer» is written on it, I wonder what a person lives on. Now, every Ukrainian pays huge taxes and also gives a lot. It’s difficult to judge who is a greater volunteer – we, who gave what was due, or those who give 80 per cent of what they have.
We’ve always been interested in the issues of medicine and education, and through our foundation, we changed many spheres. Now, it is perceived a little differently, because the legislation allows us to import various necessary items from abroad, to collect funds. In general, there is a lot of speculation about volunteering.
Large foundations began to show their operational expenses. In some cases, it is the business that covers them, others have the percentage from funds coming from people. How does it work for your holding?
For us, in fact, these are the projects. If we collect [funds] for something or spend them for something, later we figure out everything ourselves. When the war started, we realized that now, we were not talking about business – we had to survive, to protect the city and the country. And we started doing everything in our capability for this purpose, staying in business and doing at least what we understood. It was divided into topics: military, social and individual projects. That’s how we work.
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What can we do as a restaurant company? We started feeding people. I believe that one of the most effective organizations that helped Ukraine is World Central Kitchen. At the beginning of the war, there were a lot of international missions telling us what to do, while choosing the most expensive hotels to stay at. We understood that at that time, thousands of hungry people needed to be fed at our station. The guys from WorldCentral Kitchen arrived, and on the second day, we started cooperating with them, becoming their largest base in Ukraine. During the peak load period, we prepared 37,000 portions per day.
Was it in March?
Back in February, in fact. During a couple of days. Then we started forming dry rations. Almost all of our kitchens have been filled with work, by people who know how to cook. Our warehouses have become a kind of supply hub. They provided their material base, «Plast» scouts also worked with it. Later, we already had some competence in tactical medicine and began to set ourselves certain tasks. We understood that there are no «correct» tactical first-aid kits. What did we do about this? We sent people for training, and now we have certified tactical medics who can teach others. Through the charity fund, we are trying to create 10,000 first-aid kits. Different people help us in this, but we have an understanding of what these first-aid kits should be, where to take them and to whom to give them. We conduct training for the military so that they know how to use them, because, unfortunately, most of them do not know it. That is, it became a separate direction. There is a fund that collects money, people who collect first aid kits, and it will work until the need disappears.
There is a military part: we had the first registered volunteer battalion «!FEST». But it’s my partner Dmytro who deals more with it, because he is competent about weapons.
We have a separate project related to our subsidiary «Aviation of Halychyna». We’ve been cooperating with the Air Force for a long time and started helping them with everything we can, searching for special equipment. Although we have significantly fewer pilots than other military personnel, for each of them it’s necessary to collect much more than for an infantryman. Later, when the military came to us, we initiated the «Buy me a jet» project, designed to purchase a combat aircraft.
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Was it when everyone was talking about closing the sky and the lack of planes in Ukraine?
Yes. I always say that it’s easier for me to buy something than to save for something. So we shot a video that became viral in the world. It was demonstrated in the senate, shown in foreign news, and we began to receive inquiries about where to transfer the money for the plane. The pilots answered that they do not know how to do it correctly, how to collect the funds, but they trust us because of having the experience of cooperating with us. So we created a separate fund «Aviation of Halychyna», which includes a project for the purchase of a combat aircraft.
At what stage is it now?
This case is not easy, it cannot be solved quickly. I’m even afraid to comment on something, because the air force never bought planes – only sold them or exchanged them, for example, for gas. That is, there was no such precedent yet. We have some work to do, we’re now at the stage of signing the contract. There are many different points and clarifications.
Have you already collected the funds?
There is a certain part of the amount – almost half a million dollars. We already understand the logistics. Now, we are talking about choosing a specific aircraft model. The Air Force faces many questions, including what it will look like in the future. We found such an option that could be implemented as soon as possible: to take an airplane that everyone knows how to fly, but at the same time, not too old. Because now all the planes are mainly of the post-Soviet model. And in order to support them, it is necessary to cooperate with the countries of the post-Soviet camp, which is not an option.
You meet and communicate with Prytula, you even announced the possibility of a joint project.
Of course. The city is small, and now many acquaintances have moved here. We became much closer to each other because of this war. But again, people have their own goals, they have charitable foundations that deal with specific things. And our charity fund is what we do after work. And we have to get into it. I’m not used to this. We are used to build successful businesses. When something had to be changed, we simply took it and changed it. And taking pictures with pickup trucks or weapons that you give away is not for me.
Everyone has their own approach, but the purchase of an airplane and aircraft suggests that several private companies may appear in Ukraine at once, which will be engaged in the purchase and sale of weapons.
Not quite so. All these questions are actually very regulated. We have four special exporters who are supposed to deal with this. As well as a new specially created agency from the Ministry of Defense. Private initiatives are more about synergy and speed. We know that all state affairs take a long time, and the Asylum, thanks to its authority, can quickly raise money and buy everything it needs. But neither he nor we can do anything without exporting companies. We can’t just go and buy something. We have signed a memorandum with Ukroboronprom, a tripartite agreement in which we are the only payers. This way, we collect funds and know how to use them effectively, because we already have such competencies. I don’t see anything wrong with that, it’s a deeper approach. We had a joint project with the «Come Back Alive» foundation. Literally, thanks to the print on the T-shirts alone, people gathered at the «Leleka» UAV complex. We also have common stories with the Prytula Foundation, but they deal with it more professionally, and we are ready to help.
It is something from big projects, but there are also little. Maksym Kozytskyi, Lviv governor, called your foundation and the People’s Self-Defence of the Lviv region the ones that brought the most humanitarian aid from abroad. What did you manage to supply?
A lot of things passed through our warehouses. Now we are working on first aid kits. There are different areas of work. For example, «Pravda Brewery», which produces beer, was one of the first to change craft culture in the country. But the war broke out, and people gave up beer. We couldn’t promote it. In Lviv, one might say, a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages appeared out of nowhere, and then just as quickly disappeared.
We have a lot of people working, particularly in restaurants. So what was to be done? Say «you’re not working today» or something? And how long should they not work? I turned to the city authorities in order to understand this, to make a «picture» for myself.
We realized that we could not work efficiently as a brewery, so we switched to export. We decided to make the recipes and label layouts of our best beers, which have been awarded international awards, open to the public. So that craft breweries in the world can use them and brew our beer for themselves, and if they have the opportunity – to donate it. Now, it is brewed in 700 breweries around the world. It’s an incredible thrill when «Putin Huilo» beer is released in Tokyo. This story turned into the «Brew for Ukraine» initiative with a separate site brewforukraine.beer where you can see who joined us. People donated the money which we later used to buy pickup trucks for specific military units. Quite a lot of funds were accumulated there, and this initiative turned into a flash mob. But the biggest thrill for us is not only fundraising but also support for Ukraine.
Sergiy Smirnov spoke
Text: Marichka Ilyina, translated by Vitalii Holich
Photo from Ivan Stanislavskyi’s studio, as well as from armyinform, schoolandcollegelistings.com
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