Despite the war in Ukraine, the town of Vinnytsia, about 200 kilometers east of Kyiv, is decorated with huge, colorful Easter eggs. People are sitting in cafes, bars and restaurants are open. “I would not have expected this level of normality,” said Bernried Mayor Georg Malterer. “The war is always an issue, but people are trying to live normalcy,” he says. Last week Malterer accompanied the aid transport to Vinnyzja, which the district of Weilheim-Schongau had started as part of the large-scale fundraising campaign “Solidarity Ukraine”.
The idea of directly helping people in Ukraine came up at a district meeting of the Municipality Day. The Mayor of Rottenbuch, Markus Bader, took part as a speaker at a conference on cultural policy in rural areas in Vinnytsia in 2019. Since then he has kept in touch with the Ukrainian city. During a video conference with the deputy mayor of Vinnytsia, he learned how urgently help was needed there. Because there are currently around 200,000 war refugees in the city of 360,000, plus more than 1,000 injured soldiers in the military hospital.
Medicines and other relief supplies were brought to Vinnytsia with the aid transport.
(Photo: private/oh)
At the hospital in Vinnyzja, the mayors from the Weilheim-Schongau district meet with the chief physicians of the clinic.
(Photo: private/oh)
In Vinnyzja, more X-ray machines are needed for the operating theaters in the hospital.
(Photo: private/oh)
All 34 district communities in Weilheim-Schongau have therefore helped together and donated one euro per inhabitant, i.e. a total of 135,000 euros. Some municipalities have also set up donation accounts, including Bernried. In the small village, another 4,000 euros were raised. The donations were used to procure medicines, an operating table, an X-ray machine and a total of 3.5 tons of food. The Pollinger bus company Krieger provided a bus with three drivers and only charged the fuel costs.
Malterer and his counterparts Werner Grünbauer from Pähl and Markus Bader from Rottenbuch accompanied the transport together with the Ukrainian Iryna Frenkel as a translator. Initially, the transport should only go as far as the Ukrainian border. But then it was decided to deliver the relief supplies to Vinnytsia, 1,727 kilometers away, and to take 25 refugees, including many traumatized children, with them on the return journey. As Malterer himself is a father of five and eight-year-old children, he made himself available to look after the Ukrainian children during the journey.
Life in the city goes on as normal – if it weren’t for the air raid alarms
The head of the town hall in Bernried is delighted that he was able to help on the spot. “We assessed the risk and decided that we can take responsibility for it.” He was impressed by the great gratitude of the Ukrainians because their counterparts from Upper Bavaria had come in person. As Malterer reports, the bus was marked as an aid transport and the trip went without incident. From the border one was accompanied by a police escort and waved through at the roadblocks in front of each town. The bus arrived in Vinnytsia last Friday.
The relief supplies were unloaded immediately. Afterwards there was a reception in the town hall, a visit to the hospital and even a guided tour of the city. “You don’t have the feeling that war is raging there,” says Malterer. Life in the city would go on as normal – if it weren’t for the air raids. The sirens go off at least three times a day, and then red warning signs light up in the buildings. It was amazing how calm and disciplined people went into the security rooms. In the hotel, according to Malterer, the guests were sent to the basement bar. There they drank a beer and waited until the all-clear was given and the scoreboard switched to green again.
Mayor Georg Malterer in his office looking at the pictures that were taken during the trip.
(Photo: Arlet Ulfers)
Air alert in the hotel’s basement bar: stay under cover until the red warning screens turn green again.
(Photo: private/oh)
At Vinnytsia Town Hall: Reception with the local mayor Serhii Morhunov.
(Photo: private/oh)
According to Malterer, when you talk to the Ukrainians, it’s always about the military conflict with Russia. From the point of view of Ukraine, there has been a war since 2014. “But it wasn’t about political issues for us, it’s about human help,” explains the mayor. He didn’t just want to help from Bernried – after all, the village of 2,400 has already taken in almost 80 Ukrainian refugees, which is the highest per capita proportion in the Weilheim-Schongau district. But he also wanted to help people directly on site, says Malterer.
He was impressed by the hospitality of those affected in this crisis situation – and their confidence. The men and grandmothers were composed when their relatives boarded the bus to Germany. There was no desperate mood on the bus itself either. Everything was extremely quiet, especially the children. According to Malterer, there were only complications at the Polish border, when the bus was classified as commercial transport and entry was denied. One and a half hours discussed with the border officials. In the end, all inmates, including the children, had to get out with their luggage at 1 a.m. and cross the border on foot.
Rescued from Vinnytsia: Ukrainian war refugees on their arrival in Schongau.
(Photo: private/oh)
Malterer helped an elderly woman carry her plastic bags down a long corridor to the Polish side. That’s when he got a feeling for what it means to be a refugee, he says in retrospect. The bus drove empty across the border and then collected all the occupants again. At home, everyone involved agreed: the aid deliveries to Vinnytsia will continue. Because a fire engine is urgently needed for the fire brigade and in the hospital, of course, more medicines and X-ray machines for each operating room.
Donations can be made to the special account of the municipality of Bernried at VR-Bank Starnberg-Herrsching-Landsberg (IBAN DE 46700932000000110094) or at Sparkasse Oberland (IBAN DE79703510300000001149).