Every day they give relief supplies to schools and police stations.
(Photo: Lionwood)
Dusseldorf Yuriy Kaminovskyy guides us through his office via smartphone video: a large room with desks, folded camp beds leaning against the wall, mattresses and pillows are stacked in the conference room. Some desks are occupied. The 30-year-old is the managing director and co-founder of Lionwood, a Ukrainian software start-up.
Since the beginning of the war, Kaminosvkyy has been coordinating the transport of relief supplies and hosting refugees in his offices in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. 3000 people, mostly women and children, have sought refuge there in the past month. The Handelsblatt has been in close contact with the entrepreneur for several weeks. Here he documents his experiences.
March 8, 2022, a week and a half after the start of the war
When the war started at 3:40 a.m. on February 24, I was asleep. It was really bad. My son Marin is only eleven months old. My family fled from Kyiv to us in Lviv.
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In the company we have divided the tasks. I take care of the refugees while the other founders take care of the business. I get 1000 calls a day, almost all of them asking for help. I only eat once a day, sleep five hours – there’s just no time.
Every day we drive refugees in our cars to the Polish border, which is about 65 kilometers away. Unfortunately, the road is closed one kilometer beforehand, we have to walk the rest. On the way back we bring groceries and other things. We turned our office into a refugee camp.
So many people come to Lviv, mostly women and children. They still have fear written all over their faces, they have no money, no things with them. We buy you everything you need, give you coffee and something to eat. 200 people move in with us every day. They usually stay for a day or two.
Improvised refugee accommodation: Yuriy Kaminovskyy accommodated around 200 Ukrainians per night.
(Photo: Lionwood)
March 29, 2022, four and a half weeks after the start of the war
The situation has improved. The last refugees left our office five days ago. They were taken to neighboring schools. There they are taken care of.
About 3,000 refugees have lived with us since the outbreak of war. Now we need to repaint the walls and want to turn our office back into a workplace. There are still mattresses and pillows in the conference room.
We have to start working again because the supplies we donate to the army are expensive. We donated 70 bulletproof vests to the soldiers, one costing over $1,000. Every day we give more relief supplies to schools and police stations. We spent a total of 200,000 euros on this this month. That’s a lot for our company. We want to win the war, so we’re happy to do it. Nobody is thinking about buying a car or a house right now.
Women and children in particular sought refuge at Lionwood.
(Photo: Lionwood)
The positive side is: we were able to continue our business at other locations. My brother, the CEO, runs the business from Slavske, 150 kilometers from Lviv. If one of us has a problem, the other can keep things running. Many customers think our initiative is great. They write us “You guys are so cool”. We were able to hire five new employees ourselves.
After the refugees have moved out, Yuriy Kaminosvkyy wants to give mattresses and pillows to schools.
(Photo: Lionwood)
I myself am relieved – and tired. During the night there was an air raid alarm again. We stayed on the first floor, the safest place in the apartment, for more than an hour – in the hope that nothing would happen. Two days ago I saw with my own eyes rockets hit a building just four kilometers away. I am very afraid.
I’ve only slept three to four hours a night for the past two weeks. I didn’t eat for days because there was too much to do. Food was scarce anyway. Many of those who came to us had not eaten or drunk for three days. I helped take her to the hospital. We needed many kilograms of food per day. Getting it was almost impossible. We asked surrounding restaurants for help. They donated food to us.
We don’t know how things will continue. But looking back, one thing is clear to me: it was only a matter of time before Russia attacked Ukraine. Many Russian soldiers were stationed in Donetsk and Lugansk for years. My country has been at war for eight years.
More: Escape from Kyiv: “Will I ever see my husband again?”