A young Ukrainian plumber who has left Ireland to fight for his country in Ukraine has appealed for help from people here.
Pavlo Serdiuk, who is an apprentice plumber with a company in Ballincollig in Cork, flew to Ukraine at the weekend saying that while he was ‘scared’ at the prospect of going to war, he felt he had to ‘go there and do what I can’.
The 23-year-old, who came to Cork when he was 18, has travelled with a group of Ukrainians - including his father Roman and his friend Maksym (Max) Savych - to Poland to cross over the border into their native country.
Before leaving, they were given medical supplies and military helmets from other members of the Irish Ukrainian community, complete with Irish badges, Cork Beo reports.
This morning, Pavlo sent a message back to Ireland, appealing to people here to support Ukraine with medical supplies and other much-needed help.
He said: “We’ve been reunited with my mother and sister, they are good they were so happy to see us, we are together now at last
“Last night we woke up three times as alerts went out for missile attacks.
“I am trying to contact all the volunteers we have in Ireland, lots of my friends contacted me to contact me with money, but there’s no point we can’t buy medical supplies here.
“We just got contact from army and they want to organise getting medical supplies from Ireland so that’s what I’m trying to do.
“Money isn’t in value right now. We really need medical supplies. We are going to organise people in Ireland to gather all the help we can get. I want to say thank you to all Irish people that are helping us during this difficult time.”
Pavlo and his comrades say they are looking for military equipment including body armour.
However, he added that Irish people can help with donations of items including “portable coolers, medical supplies, bandages, strong painkillers, anesthetic, hemostatic, materials for stitching the wounds, emergency medical venous tourniquet, satellite phones and long-range walkie talkies (more than 3 km). Thermal underwear.”
Meanwhile, one Ukrainian who previously fought for his country against Russia but is unable to travel this time is attempting to organise supplies from here.
56-year-old widowed dad-of-four Sergiy Adamenko, who now lives in north Dublin, previously took up arms for Ukraine in his home region of Donbas which is controlled by pro-Russia rebels.
He said the “majority” of his relatives were pro-Russia when rebels moved to take control there in 2014, but have mixed feelings about the current invasion.
Sergiy said: “The majority of my relatives were supporting Russia in that region in 2013. Now they’re feeling very upset.
“My cousin was taken to the Russian army by force. He was living in the occupied territory and had been pro Russia but he was told he was obliged to fight against Ukrainians and at the moment we don’t know where he is.
“There’s no contact with him since army men came to his work and told him he had to join. His father was supporting Russians but after that they felt it was a big mistake.
“Not all of my family were supporting Russia, but the majority of them were. Our town is 30km from the border and although they were ethnically Ukrainian they followed a lot of Russian media.
“In 2017 I went to Donbas and fought for three months.”
Sergiy, whose battlefield codename was ‘Patrick’, hasn’t travelled to Ukraine this time, but is looking into filling up a vehicle with supplies that he’ll then drive over.
