Dmitry Ioffik holding the right corner of the Ukrainian flag and his colleagues from Refining NZ. Photo / Supplied
Dmitry Ioffik holding the right corner of the Ukrainian flag and his colleagues from Refining NZ. Photo / Supplied
It's been more than two months since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Fighting continues in the east and south; in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk.
People are still trying to leave the besieged city of Mariupol.
The United Nations report that nearly 5.5 million Ukrainians have fled their war-ravaged country.
Almost 2400 civilians are dead, 177 of them children, the UN confirmed two weeks ago. Estimates are much higher. Nearly 3000 are injured.
The UK's Ministry of Defence on Saturday reported that Russian forces are struggling to merge and redeploy depleted and disparate units from their failed advances in north-east Ukraine.
The ministry believes the Russian army is slowed by weakened morale and shortcomings in skill and tactical coordination.
But Ukraine is undeniably suffering.
For Northlander Dmitry Ioffik it was clear that he had to help in some way. Even though he had left his home country Belarus 21 years ago, he has been closely monitoring the developments in Europe and Russia all this time.
With a series of raffles, Ioffik together with his colleagues at Refining NZ (now Channel Infrastructure) managed to raise $1752 in addition to the money he has privately donated to Ukraine.
"There are simple ways how people can help," Ioffik said. "I understand that Kiwis want to help but many are not aware of how to. They go to big organisations but there are better ways."
He said by cutting out middlemen who tend to take a cut, more money could reach Ukraine directly.
The National Bank of Ukraine has set up an international transfer account where people can either choose to donate their money to the armed forces or towards humanitarian aid.
The Ministry of Social Policy will receive humanitarian donations and support Ukraine's citizens severely affected by the war by providing food, shelter, clothing and other essentials.
As of Friday, the account set up for military purposes had received more than NZ$800m in donations going towards various arms of the defence force.
Ioffik said there was another, easy way for Kiwis to support Ukraine:
"People can stop using services that are provided by businesses that continue to support the Russian war machine."
The website dontfundwar.com is a database put together by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, a non-profit organisation affiliated with Yale University in the United States.
The database lists multinational businesses that sell products and services across the globe and shows which continue dealing with Russia and which have withdrawn their business.
Smoke rises in the air in Lviv, western Ukraine, after a Russian airstrike. Photo / AP
Big companies like the Chinese online warehouse Alibaba; Belgian beverages retailer AB InBev - which sells popular brews including Corona, Beck's and Budweiser - or Hong Kong computer hardware provider Lenovo are on the red list among many others.
Ioffik said while his support for Ukraine was only a drop in the ocean, every drop counts.
He explained his own motherland was in the grip of a dictator, President Aleksandr Lukashenko who took office in 1994 turning the Belarusian state into an "oppressive apparatus".
Ioffik said Lukashenko's "brutal police force" has been arresting, torturing and killing people since its inception – especially those daring to oppose the government.
To fortify his power in the 2020 election, which Ioffik and reports from Belarus poll workers described as "rigged", Lukashenko turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin for support.
And when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces marched in from Belarus soil.
But despite having their president doing Putin's bidding, the citizens of Belarus are in solidarity with Ukraine, Ioffik said.
No one is allowed to show this solidarity publicly but the vast majority was against the war in Ukraine, he explained.
While Ioffik, his wife and son left because of Lukashenko, his parents still live in his hometown, in the northeast of Belarus.
"Ukraine showed that eastern Slavic countries can have democratic elections. They wanted to live free and in peace. I was happy for Ukraine that they managed to do that.
"Now it's a fight between light and darkness; between freedom and oppression."
• Donate directly to the Ukrainian government via the National Bank of Ukraine • Visit dontfundwar.com to find out which companies continue to support the Russian economy
