Veres Rivne midfielder Oleksandr Kucherenko spoke about his volunteer trip to the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
- Unfortunately, the holiday was too short to feel it. He spent the first twelve days with his family in Lutsk, then travelled to the east of Ukraine for almost a week - to Donetsk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions. I was delivering aid to the military and civilians. I wanted to wish the children there happy holidays. I wanted to make sure they didn't feel abandoned. Now I'm trying to spend more time with my children and my wife, because the training camp is coming up and we won't see each other for a month.
It was quite a difficult and dangerous trip. We travelled through Sloviansk, Toretsk, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, Kupyansk, and the Sumy region. I slept for two days after returning. For five days, I drove almost continuously and covered almost 4,000 kilometres. I bought the guys a generator. We also sent them a starlink, shipped food, and delivered targeted parcels. Then we distributed the food parcels to people in three cities, visited children with goodies and congratulated them on Christmas and New Year. My volunteer friends helped me collect the food, and I bought everything else myself.
"I have been actively volunteering since May 2022. I started by getting off my arse and trying to be useful. I could not stand aside, as I do now. The first two trips I financed entirely at my own expense, then I got acquainted with charitable foundations," said the Rivne resident.