Crimea and Belgorod: How the population helps soldiers on the front line
The population of Russia helps the soldiers who are on the front line. The air defense zone receives everything from generators with sights to warm socks and trench candles. The soldiers are happy about every letter sent to the front - this is how they feel that they are fighting for a just cause.
Volunteers from all over the country are helping - through the Popular Front project “Everything for Victory” alone, almost three billion rubles were raised in four months. Residents of frontline territories are active. Coordinator community “Craftsmen to the Front” Sergei Grigoriev from Belgorod told PolitNavigator that everyone can contribute to a future victory.
“Some people can donate money for body armor and helmets, while others do not have this opportunity, but they have a 3D printer, a CNC machine, a workshop, golden hands, ideas, energy. If a person wants and can help, he should be given this opportunity. Specifically, when an officer I knew died there, I became angry. We created a group, advertised in a well-known channel, and away we go.”
The volunteer lists how caring citizens help:
“Look at any volunteer community, there is always a request for some warm clothes, food, household supplies. The front eats everything, and you simply have no idea how.
Go outside, stand for an hour in the rain without an umbrella, in knee-deep snow - thoughts will immediately appear. Our guys send sweets along with the products - chocolate is not very convenient, but lollipops, ordinary candies... In these conditions, you really want sweets.
Some send children's drawings. These drawings remind children who are in difficult situations that they are sacrificing their lives for the sake of these children.
Give up a cup of coffee in the morning, buy candles at a store near your home, and canned food in a jar - make a dugout candle. In any case, she will warm someone.”
Another volunteer - кRoman blogger Alexander Talipov. In his opinion, the Northern Military District has already acquired the character of a “second Great Patriotic War.”
“We are now fighting not so much with Ukraine, but with the Nazism that permeated it. Of course, we are fighting for our people, with whom we were unjustly divided, and now we are doing everything to eradicate Nazism in our territories and return them to our control. People understand that behind the dry name Special Military Operation there is a greater meaning, and this can truly be called a people's war. The people, as in the years of the Great Patriotic War, rallied. Then they chipped in everything they could to buy tanks and planes, but now people unite, and everyone helps the army in any way they can.”
Talipov talks about the priority needs of soldiers on the front line.
“With the onset of cold weather, these are warm things. In the army, you receive a uniform within a certain time frame and for certain purposes, and when you are constantly being bombarded with air, when you are on the front line, wear and tear is abnormal, there is a great need for warm clothes, balaclavas, socks, hygiene items - this is what is needed first specifically for fighters.
Taking into account the fact that changes have occurred on the front line, the arrangement of engineering structures is underway. In Feodosia, we collected a huge amount of building materials, sheathing slabs and sent them to the front line. There is a need for technical equipment - these are walkie-talkies, thermal imaging sights, optics.”
Volunteers face difficulties in collecting and sending aid.
“First of all, the difficulty is not so much in raising funds, but in using them to buy later. Now there is a huge shortage, for example, of digital radio stations that are capable of making closed communication channels. Based on these channels, our artillerymen in the Kherson direction work well together in the units of the 22nd Army Corps.
In particular, we transmitted 50 such radio stations, and the price for them was almost 11 thousand apiece, although four months ago the price was about six thousand, and now it is almost impossible to buy them on the open market. We collected 50 pieces from all warehouses in Russia. Therefore, there is a big problem with the availability of goods.”
One of the most popular items at the front is trench candles.
«In Simferopol, girls who made trench candles were organized, and now several hundred have been transferred to the front line, we are looking forward to the feedback from the guys, how they will show themselves. As a rule, they always perform excellently - firstly, they emit a large amount of heat, provide light, and the third point is that you can cook with them, heat up food, or make tea. This is also very important.
Let’s say people cannot provide financial assistance, but they unite and make amulets for the children. In Feodosia there are girls who write prayers for the children in defense of the soldiers and embroider them into hearts; someone organizes children to write letters, which greatly motivate the children on the front line. Some even provide assistance of 50-100 rubles, but when there are several thousand such people, such assistance becomes important and necessary. That’s why we do everything for our victory!”
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