Just before nine o’clock in the evening an air raid siren sounds in the main hall of the Paradiso pop venue in Amsterdam. A monotonous whine that goes through my bones: the end of the break.
But, as RTL correspondent Olaf Koens tells the audience, for the residents of Ukraine the sound means that Russian missiles are on their way. Night after night the siren has kept them awake for 1,461 nights. Four years without a night’s sleep. Can we imagine something about that?
That seems to be the goal tonight, on this fourth anniversary of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. To let us, residents of the safe Netherlands, feel what it is like to be the target of a Russian war of aggression. Just to warn you once again: if Ukraine loses this war, Russia will then aim its missiles at the rest of Europe. And to impress upon us that it is therefore also vital for the Netherlands to continue to stand behind Ukraine.
This is the time to take action, writer Jaap Scholten tells the audience. His Protect Ukraine foundation is the organizer of the event; A QR code for donating will be visible on the screen behind the stage throughout the evening. Protect Ukraine uses the money to buy helmets, fragment vests, first aid kits, ambulances, pickup trucks and reconnaissance drones. Volunteers drive in convoys with the material from the Netherlands to Ukraine, where they donate it to the Ukrainian armed forces. Preferably as directly as possible, so that the material ends up in the right place and does not fall prey to corruption.
Crowdfunded war
The soldiers at the front can use the material well, says Scholten. “The most important thing is to realize that this is a crowdfunded war. Those soldiers are largely dependent on what they get from relatives, friends and NGOs. They really need our stuff to survive.”
Scholten founded Protect Ukraine in May 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion. He was at the border between Hungary and Ukraine to pick up in-laws who had fled. There he saw a young woman at a border post handing out blankets to fleeing Ukrainians. It made him decide to drive to Ukraine with helmets and fragment vests.
Protect Ukraine has now become a major player. In the first three years, the foundation collected 7.1 million euros in donations; The counter now stands at 15 million, says Scholten NRC. Protect Ukraine recently delivered an old propeller plane for the first time, which the Ukrainians now use to shoot Shahed drones out of the sky. Together with the Ukrainian General Staff, the foundation developed a robot vehicle that can transport injured soldiers to safety from the front.
Scholten also founded ‘Writers for Ukraine’, with which he visits theaters in the Netherlands together with fellow writers and journalists to make the war tangible. Scholten: “I was in Kyiv in the summer of 2022 and asked someone there what I could do as a writer to help. He said: record, record, record. That is why I have all writers in June 2023 (in addition to RTL journalist Koens, including program maker Jelle Brandt Corstius and writer Tommy Wieringa, ed.) asked to join the convoy. That worked well, because they brought all those stories back with them.”
Prime Minister Rob Jetten (D66) expressed his gratitude to Protect Ukraine in a video message.
Bram Petraeus
Source of inspiration
It generated quite a bit of attention for the foundation. Including from D66 party leader Rob Jetten, who traveled to Ukraine with Protect Ukraine last year and Wieringa’s book Convoy opposite NRC mentioned as a source of inspiration. Jetten will also appear tonight in Paradiso, with a video message in which he thanks Protect Ukraine and expresses “unconditional support” for Ukraine from his government. “Not only while the war lasts, but also afterwards, during the reconstruction and on their way to the European family.”
Even after four years of war, he notices that the Dutch remain particularly involved in Ukraine, says Scholten. “On those evenings we receive heaters and generators from all sides. Recently a man brought 600 kilos of sleeping bags. I think people are slowly but surely starting to see that we are doing a good job.”
And how does he view the fear that military support to Ukraine will actually cause the Netherlands and the European NATO countries to end up in a war with Russia? “I have three children, I also hope that they will not have to fight the Russians. But it is a fact that Russia is aggressive. It is now just like in 1938: if we let Ukraine lose, we will inevitably have a major war in Europe. You can bury your head in the sand about that, but I don’t think that will help us any further.”
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