Ukraine: solidarity is organized

It is currently a one-way trip with no return date. Luckily, Louis Chambaudie, his wife Yuliya and their 14-year-old son, Mathéo, were in Paris, for a trade show, a few days before the outbreak of the Russian offensive on Ukraine. Unable to return to kyiv. They then set sail for North Finistère, where they own a small house in the village of Santec. Since then, it is from a distance, 3,000 kilometers away, on social networks, that they follow the evolution of the situation. But no way to sit idly by.

From Brittany, the couple initiated a whole chain of solidarity with the Ukrainians. Gowns, infusions, dressings, compresses. Donations of medical equipment and medicines are pouring in from all over the region. Many health professionals have joined the initiative. “We need funds, donations of everyday medicines, that is to say everything that can be bought in pharmacies without a prescription, details Louis Chambaudie. it is also with pleasure that we can receive this. We sort, we make the packages, we only do medicine and only post or pre-surgical, bandages, tourniquets, everything that is disinfectant, everything that is missing on the forehead. Solidarity is really very nice at the pharmacy level, we are really well received.”

The Chambaudies have created an association, “Ukrainian Britain Alliance”, to receive donations and organize deliveries to Ukraine. The Frenchman has already made a trip at the wheel of a 15m3 van, provided by a local mechanic, and accompanied by a minibus, to deliver his precious parcels to the Ukrainian border so that they are then delivered to the hospital in kyiv by soldiers. “It happened after three days in kyiv, explains the Frenchman, and they sent us thank you videos from every department of hospital, pediatrics, surgery. That’s what I actually like about it, it’s that we know who we’re giving medicine to. We are not saying that we are going to compete with the Red Cross, far from it. It’s five thousand kilometers in two days with a friend who tells me he never falls asleep at the wheel and ends up falling asleep. So, we end up coming across a van that hits us and breaks the left side window. We came back from Poland to Brittany on Saturday Sunday, with a piece of cardboard and tape, so I’m not telling the head we had when we arrived in Finistère!” On their return, five Ukrainian refugees were repatriated to Brittany.

Golden Youth of Kyiv

Louis Chambaudie has lived in kyiv for 25 years. With his wife Yuliya, the Frenchman set up several restaurants in the Ukrainian capital, where he employed up to 130 people. The couple also converted to the wine trade. Before the war, he was notably at the head of the trendy restaurant in kyiv, the Frenchie where all the expatriates and the golden youth of the city met in the evening. It has been closed for over five weeks now. Louis Chambaudie must make a second trip to Ukraine next week to deliver a new shipment of drugs.

Write to him: [email protected]

Find this chronicle on the site, the app and in the international mobility magazine “Français à l’étranger.fr”