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Inside the secret transfer of military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers
Excerpt:[Stars & Stripes] "It has just exploded," said Jonas Ohman, a Swedish-born filmmaker who started the group. For years, Ohman said, he took no salary and had no paid staff as he fulfilled direct requests from front-line units with an annual budget of less than $200,000. Since the invasion last month, more than $20 million has poured in from within Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million residents. He is dispatching a convoy to the border every four or five days. With a cellphone held against a days-old beard, Ohman orders military gear by the ton from around Europe, China, Israel. He argues with customs officials in a half-dozen countries to get the shipments delivered, railing against functionaries who block his way and officers who are slaves to regulation. "I tell them all the time: 10,000 euros can be more deadly than a million if you know how to spend it," he growled between phone calls. Ohman has filled one donated warehouse on the outskirts of Poland’s capital, Warsaw. Another in Vilnius, provided by a Lithuanian transport company, has become a drop-off site for locals wanting to give. "These will work," one volunteer declared on a recent afternoon when a truck arrived at the Vilnius warehouse with 800 pairs of new steel-toed boots and 1,000 fleece jackets still in the wrapper, all donated by a hunting goods retailer. A forklift unloaded the cases, depositing them next to 14 pallets of IV saline solutions and boxes filled with 13,000 trauma tourniquets and 200 satellite phones. A local marketing company has launched a fundraising campaign for the group. And a group of Rotary Club volunteers makes calls to military suppliers in surrounding countries. "Everything in Europe is selling out," said Zemyna Bliumenzonaite, a Blue and Yellow staffer. "But we are getting more requests than ever." She held out her phone to show some of the texts she gets from soldiers in Ukraine. One named "Kruk" asked for 1,000 tourniquets and 40 individual first aid kits. She tells him they will be in the next convoy. "You are our Guardian Angel," he writes back. Posted by: Besoeker 2022-03-20 |
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