9 days

9 days left until we go again. Plannnig is done; hotels and train tickets are booked and our tour leader Anastasiia is ready. Still there may be last minute changes and and on the spot while on tour. This time, the risks may seem higher than before. After all, we are going to Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv, all exposed to intensified Russian bombardment in recent weeks. And no one has canceled in the last month despite the horrors reported in media.

We are 20 participants. Ten are going by ferry from Nynäshamn, close to Stockholm, to Gdansk in Poland. Next day the rest of us will join in Warsaw. This time they come from Great Britain, Germany and USA.

For me, canceling the trour is not an option. There are a dozen volunteer organizations that are eager to talk about their work and with a hope for financial support. No, I see it as a duty to carry out the tours and to continue doing so, at least as long as the war goes on.

Iryna Popovych at Dzygas Paw in Lviv on an earlier visit said:

Thank you for your money.

Thank you for your arms.

But most of all,

Thank you for coming here to show your solidarity.

Then again, I know that the risks aren’t as big as we might believe when following the news on TV. Ukraine is considerably bigger than Sweden, and here 40 million people have endured the war for 4.5 years. Last year, more people died in traffic-related accidents than civilians killed by Russian bombardments.

Follow us on our tour through this blog. I hope time and stamina will allow me to share my impressions and the good stories. An eventful tour always produce good stories.