KYIV – After World War II, the freedom fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out a series of “raids” to break through Soviet-occupied areas and reach Western Allied forces to tell them they’re fighting for independence.
The operations led to huge losses. But the UPA partisans who made it to U.S. or British-held territory succeeded in establishing ties and relaying their cause. This led America and Britain to eventually devise a plan and parachute exiled UPA fighters and supplies into western Ukraine.
It was foiled, however.
The so-called Cambridge Five spy ring, led by Kim Philby, had alerted the Soviets who quashed the covert mission.
On May 16, another group of Ukrainians will reach the West. They’ll touch down in New York to get the message out about Ukraine and speak of the Donbas war. Instead of machine guns, they’ll come equipped with Ukrainian-branded Comanche racing bicycles.
A group of nine cyclists – three of whom are Donbas war veterans – and three escort vehicle drivers will start a coast-to-coast trek to traverse more than 6,200 miles through 435 North American towns and cities.
Led by Kostiantyn Samchuk, who heads the Proidysvit non-profit group, their odyssey is called the “Chumak Way – Cycle U.S. & Canada for Peace” on Facebook.
“Our purpose is to promote Ukraine,” Mr. Samchuk, 40, told The Ukrainian Weekly. “It’s about uniting Ukraine and Ukrainians around the world. The [millions] of Ukrainians living abroad are growing. I want to connect them and show that there is strength in unity.”
Once they land in New York they’ll collect their bikes and parts that were shipped free by the Meest delivery company, one of the group’s sponsors. Then they’ll head for Los Angeles in a 2007 e350 Ford van that a Ukrainian New Yorker bought for them – it’s cheaper than renting and Mr. Samchuk promised to sell the vehicle after the tour and give the donor the sum.
The party of 12 is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on May 22, and the following day the cross-continental tour officially starts. Fifteen major cities are on the map: San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York and Washington.
Proidysvit.org/Kostiantyn Samchuk
Ukrainian cyclists (from left) Oleksandr Berezanskyi, Vasyl Pidhirnyi, Oleksandr Chupryniuk, Kostyantyn Samchuk and Maksym Semak hold a flag that reads “Ukrainians are together” at the Belgium-Luxembourg border on June 9, 2016.
The group plans on celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day in New York and reaching the final destination of Washington on August 29. From there, they’ll fly back to Kyiv.
“We plan to talk about Ukraine every step of the way,” Mr. Samchuk underscored.
They have tents that some will use, others will sleep in the van, and they’ll slumber in motels whenever they can’t find accommodations from Ukrainians on whom they’ve relied in the past.
Two years earlier, Mr. Samchuk had led a similar cycling group in the “Ukrainians in Europe” tour through 16 European countries that also strove to shed light on Ukraine. After more than 10,000 kilometers, the group ended up breaking a Ukrainian record for the longest group cycling trip.
The most striking reaction on the part of most people they met – sometimes 100 would come to their public awareness events or local media would interview them – was that the Donbas war was an ethnic conflict.
“Much of Europe thinks that there is a ‘civil war’ in the Donbas,” said Mr. Samchuk, who served in the 12th Territorial Defense Battalion starting in May 2014 for 13 months. “For example, we noticed that in Spain, they have access to [Russian state-funded propaganda channel] Russia Today in the Spanish language.”
He noted that Ukrainian television channels are absent in the European Union and that “nobody bothers to conduct further research on the Internet, yet they live practically right next door to Ukraine.”
Their trip ended with a leg through Moldova, where they noticed that the only Ukrainian TV channel available was Inter, a Russia-friendly station.
Offering a human “library,” Mr. Samchuk said, the cyclists found that it’s better for the public “to talk to eyewitnesses who served in the Donbas war” and thus learn the truth about events in Ukraine. Five of the eight main cyclists during the European tour were Donbas war veterans.
Humorous and testing moments also marked the Chumak cyclists’ tour.
In Barcelona, the engine of a used escort vehicle they’d bought in Poland broke down. An auto repair shop called Halych caught their attention. Run by Ukrainians, Mr. Samchuk said the shop charged only for the part, not labor, and completed the job that same day. As a result, the group was able to stay on schedule.
Courtesy of Kostiantyn Samchuk
Proidysvit non-profit leader Kostiantyn Samchuk stands near a sports utility vehicle donated by volunteers in the Luhansk Oblast in September 2014 while serving in the 12th Territorial Defense Battalion as part of the Ukraine’s second troop call-up in the Donbas war.
The cyclists had an early start one morning in Portugal. One night they were camping at a sports complex that the owners let them use. The site was supposed to be a camping site, according to an outdated map they were using. But the woman working there didn’t know much English, and they couldn’t speak Portuguese. The communication breakdown culminated at 2-3 a.m., when the automatic sprinkler system turned on, giving the group a premature start for the day.
They also encountered Russians along the way.
In Berlin, the group spotted a group of Russians dressed in blue-and-white striped airborne attire spying on them with binoculars as they drove from the Brandenburg Gate to the Ukrainian Embassy with a police escort.
In Italy, a Russian heard the cyclists dressed in Ukrainian-labeled racing gear speaking Russian. He approached them and asked, “Do you still speak to Russians?,” according to Mr. Samchuk. When they responded in the affirmative, the Russian said, “I don’t much support [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s policies,” the cycling tour leader recalled.
Mr. Samchuk founded www.proidysvit.org in 2015 after serving in the Luhansk Oblast. Its purpose is to raise funds for people living with limited capabilities.
With that goal in mind, he rode a recumbent bike with three wheels designed for disabled people from westernmost Chop in the Zakarpattia Oblast to Milove in the Luhansk Oblast. Four others were part of that trip, which raised 12,000 hrv for a family who lost a father while he was fighting in the Donbas war.
“It was also a ride to symbolically unite Ukraine,” Mr. Samchuk said.