About war, volunteering and non-transfers 2022

Interview with Serhiy Savchenko, owner of BLEST

At the beginning of the year, in an interview, you talked about your plans for the year. You also noticed that there was tension in society about Russia: whether it will attack or not. Then you did not believe in the bad, but now we all already know that the worst happened - a full-scale war began and continues to this day. How did you perceive February 24 and the full-scale invasion, can you tell?

Perhaps you don’t even want to remember that day ... It passed and it’s good. I think to answer, you need to separate the rational and the emotional. I think that 99.9% of Ukrainians were not emotionally disposed to this war, did not believe in its possibility.

But rationally, I personally thought out a certain plan of action for myself in advance. I first encountered war back in 2014. Therefore, I prepared, planned my actions and my family; actions in relation to companies in which I am a founder or co-founder. I had emergency plans thought out, where it was written: "if, then 1-2-3 ...", and this is in all major areas. Therefore, when the war began, I began to act according to the plans that I had developed in advance.

Returning to the emotional state, I can tell you that on the 23rd I was on a working trip to Cherkassy; I returned home in the evening, and one of my military acquaintances told me that there was intelligence that on the 24th morning a full-scale invasion from Russia was possible. Emotionally, it was so hard to accept that the psyche simply rejected it, as if it simply could not be.

I live near Boryspil airport, and when five rockets flew over it in the morning: I just got up, got dressed, got into the car and left for Chernivtsi, where my family was already at that time.

You are now actively involved in volunteering, you have created the All4Ukraine Foundation. Tell us how it all began and why did you take up this type of resistance to Russian aggression? What were the first steps in this direction?

When a full-scale war begins and you understand that the situation around you is changing radically so suddenly, then you need some time to gather yourself and your thoughts into a single whole. For a week or two, you do not understand who you are, where you are, what is happening around you, what day it is, where to go and what to do. Apparently, everyone has experienced such a state, or at least most people. Each of them lasted for a certain period of time.

It so happened that I have a business partner in Slovakia, we opened a furniture store there, there is our branch and, accordingly, I have had a residence permit in this country for a long time. I could not even imagine that someday this might be needed. Therefore, in the first days of the war, my desire was to send my family to Slovakia, which I did. Later it turned out that men with many children also received the right to travel abroad. Therefore, I decided to personally move the family to Bratislava and equip the minimum level of domestic comfort for them. When I was already in Slovakia, for several days I was engaged in arranging life, some primitive things: where to live, how to live, where to buy forks, towels ... Because we had nothing.

And then my godfather called me, he became the battalion commander of one of the newly created battalions, and says: “Where are you?”, “In Bratislava,” I answer; he says, “Great! Look, what's the matter: I have an order to create a new battalion, there are 400 mobilized and there is nothing else. Generally! No tank, no armored personnel carrier, no car, no uniform - that's just nothing! And he asked if there was anything I could do to help them? In addition, I was in Europe and there were already much more opportunities to find something here.

And then I had to recall my volunteer experience: from the age of 14, somewhere until the 16th, I was actively involved in volunteering and worked in the Come Back Alive charity foundation. Deinega and I (Vitaly Deinega, founder and head of the Come Back Alive Charitable Foundation) have traveled a certain path, have been to the ATO hot spots, probably 15 times, transferring volunteer assistance. Since then, I have many military friends and have a lot of experience, what, how and where you can buy, how it looks, what is better, what is worse, and how to deliver it to the front line. It so happened that in 1916, when active hostilities were over, and the state had already begun to more or less normally supply our army, including thermal imagers and other gadgets, I already felt some kind of completed mission and “hung up” volunteer nail gloves. As it turned out, only temporarily.

After this call, my godfather had to return very quickly, take off volunteer gloves and decide on the spot how you can help. When a lot of people need everything at once, you just start running around and buying everything you can get and everything you might need.

The first thing I did was buy two pickup trucks, drove into a hardware store and filled them completely with what you might need to set up positions: shovels, axes, generators, tool kits, electric screwdrivers… In a word, everything you might need on combat missions. Then we stopped at a military store and bought or ammunition, sights, thermal imagers ... In a word, everything that was. Even then, there was a shortage of military goods, so I grabbed everything that was: uniform, tactical glasses, flashlights, backpacks - everything in the world! Because, let me remind you, this battalion had nothing.

Later, when I came to Ukraine and spoke with my battalion commander, he told me about their situation. Just for understanding: they gathered four hundred mobilized people, they said: here's a week for you to prepare and train, and on the second day they gave the order to go free Makarov from the Rashists. They didn’t have a single piece of equipment and my godfather had to use his car, he had a small Skoda and his foreman also had some kind of passenger car ... So, together with their cars, for a large number of walkers, they transferred a significant part of the people under Makarov from Zhytomyr. And this is about a hundred kilometers one way. Most of the people did not even have time to give out a uniform: people went to free Makarov in tracksuits and jeans. Like this…

When you know this, you see these needs, then it becomes not up to depression, not to reading the news, you just take it and do what you can. This is how the first few weeks of the war went for me: in hardware stores, in stores with ammunition, at car dealerships ... Day after day: ammunition, sights, thermal imagers, pickups ... You are constantly rushing somewhere to pick up something, redeem it, sit on the Internet in search ... During this period, the main thing was - time. No one touched anything: the best pickup model or worse, the mileage rolled up or not - they took everything that was and sent it to Ukraine. The days passed in the mode: in the morning I loaded up, left for the border; the next day he returned and again to the shops, and again you form a new batch.

How was the All4Ukraine Foundation created?

Later, when the excitement began to subside, when aid came from abroad from friendly countries en masse, and such calls as the first one, that there was nothing, stopped, I realized that I alone was not enough. I found conscientious patriots here in Bratislava and in Poland, and in Uzhgorod, and in Kyiv... Thus, a group of people was formed, an association that we later called All4Ukraine. This then turned into a volunteer fund, because I knew exactly what to do. I got this experience back in the Come Back Alive Foundation, now it is the No. 1 charitable organization in Ukraine, which collects some fantastic sums to help the army. I clearly understood what the team should be like, who should perform what functions, so that the fund could be useful in helping our army.

In addition, I understood that our team of leaders and managers from BLEST, for objective reasons, was underloaded, and someone at that moment, perhaps, was not somehow involved in the work at all. But the majority had a desire to somehow help, but did not know how to do it. So I brought in some of our staff and it turned into a systematic activity. Now we are accepting applications from the military for help: pickups, walkie-talkies, uniforms, thermal imagers, sights ... a lot of different positions. And then we start collecting funds for these applications. For this we actively use social networks, paid advertising, distribute information through our friends and acquaintances. We also involve the customers themselves in this process, and they, in turn, involve relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, etc.

When the necessary amount is collected, or even earlier, we buy the necessary things in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and even in Ukraine, if we find and then organize the transfer to the military. As practice shows, orders in which customers are actively involved are closed quite quickly. And if they just call us and ask for something, and then disappear somewhere, such applications can be closed for a long time. This is understandable, now there are not so many receipts, people are financially depleted. The economy of Ukraine is not growing, prices are rising, wages and incomes have fallen, so people are not as actively donating money as, say, at the beginning of the war.

Of course, despite the huge scope of the volunteer movement in Ukraine, everyone agrees that it is becoming increasingly difficult to raise money. At the same time, we saw a completely opposite example, when Serhiy Prytula's fund raised an incredible UAH 600 million for Bayraktary in 2-3 days. How to explain it?

First, this is the great media recognition of Sergei Prytula himself. He is now the most famous Ukrainian volunteer, he is No. 1. Once it was Deinega, until he retired from volunteering, now it is, of course, Prytula. He was in the media even before that, and plus Sergey's many years of volunteer work gave him the opportunity to accumulate a high level of trust in society. I would say this level is the highest. Plus, he has very good results. Therefore, we can say that the Shelter Fund is No. 2 after Come Back Alive: in terms of volume, scope and assistance. This is the first factor.

The second is the object itself, for which the money is collected. If we, as a volunteer project, could buy a conditionally used tank, maybe not so quickly, not in three days, but the money would be found for it. It's just that everyone understands that the tank shoots and destroys stew. Also, Bayraktar is a very cool and hyped thing, and everyone knows that Bayraktar is the end for the invaders.

But when we collect on a walkie-talkie or a pickup truck, their lethality for the enemy is not obvious to people. We sometimes see in the comments under the posts that why this pickup truck, the military will just ride somewhere in the rear ... People have a certain skepticism. In addition, my volunteer experience shows me that a certain percentage of the money collected by volunteers can be used inefficiently: help can go not to the needs of the front, but to increase the comfort of someone in leadership positions there. Unfortunately, this happens. After all, even the same pickup truck or jeep can be used for other purposes. He, conditionally, may not be with a machine gun on the front line, but carry officers somewhere in the rear. Although, on the other hand, this is also necessary - they do not ride on roller skates or scooters.

But with Bayraktor it won’t work like that! It is clear that he will destroy enemies. And Ukrainians have an understanding of the needs of Bayraktors, of course, it is 100 percent. Therefore, this project was very cool, and I thank all the people who joined the fundraising!

This situation reminds me of a story from my days in Come Back Alive: we came up with the idea that we need to start some kind of mega-cool project that would simultaneously help promote our fund and bring real benefits on the front. We learned that there is equipment in storage, which is right in a terrible state. We went to the Ministry of Defense, they gave us a factory that restores equipment. They had Smerch MLRS under restoration - this is a very powerful weapon that fires 300-caliber rockets at a distance of up to 120 km. This is a truly terrible weapon of mass destruction. If I remember correctly, then the budget for the restoration of one Tornado was then called to us from 100 to 200 thousand dollars. We then set about trying to take at least one car and restore it for the money of patrons and donors. Then decorate with stickers "Come back alive" and send to the front to beat the enemies.

When we started to dig deeper, we encountered great corruption in UkrOboronProm, where we were offered to become part of one very dirty scheme. And we decided not! That's why this project didn't work. But I am convinced that if everything was clean there, we would implement it.

The All4Ukraine Foundation is still a very young organization. However, there are already some solid results of her work. The war, unfortunately, will not end soon, and you and the fund team will continue to work. And at the same time, how would you evaluate the results and volumes of assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine that you have already provided?

Those people who know me well can confirm that I have such a trait that I treat any intermediate result as the worst possible. At present, the fund has collected, purchased and donated more than UAH 12 million in aid. These are more than forty cars (pickup trucks, SUVs and reanimobiles), dozens of optical devices, thermal imagers, hundreds of walkie-talkies and other means of communication, and much more. And this slight negativism of my results is at the same time the source of my motivation, I always want to do more.

Therefore, am I satisfied with the results, then no. I think they could be much better. On the other hand, if you look pointwise, then even the first two pickup trucks that arrived near Makarov were in battle the very next day. My kum-battalion commander called me and told me that at first the mobilized were not very eager to fight and he had to run first forward and raise morale by his example. So, they installed ATGMs on these two pickup trucks, these are anti-tank systems with guided missiles, and drove to the positions. We saw two Russian tanks and opened fire on them from two pickup trucks. Both tanks were destroyed. Kum, when he told me, joyfully shouted into the phone, but for me it was not entirely clear then, because where are the pickups and where are the tanks ... But the news of the destroyed enemies raised my personal morale and desire to help even more.

Then there were more and more such situations. For example, military doctors, to whom we gave thermal imagers, needed them to inspect the battlefield at night and look for still alive and wounded soldiers. So they later called to thank and said that only during the first night thermal imagers helped to find and save the lives of two fighters.

And there are many such stories. If you put everything together like a puzzle into a single picture, then it turns out that every thing: sights, binoculars, thermal imagers, first aid kits, camouflage equipment, drones, cars, etc., each such thing performs its specific function and helps at the front. And I understand that our help is a few dozen destroyed enemies and their equipment; and also several tens or hundreds of our military rescued. Is it a lot or a little? Everything is relative. But it's definitely not in vain!

Now the BLEST company has launched a campaign in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and deducts 5% of sales for the purchase of the necessary funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Tell us more about it.

It is no secret that BLEST, according to our management policy, has a Reserve Fund, the funds from which are used used in peacetime for the development of the company: restyling of stores, the purchase of new production equipment, etc. Even before the launch of our action, I decided to partially attract certain funds from this reserve for the purchase of assistance to the army.

And if, at present, through the All4Ukraine volunteer movement, we have helped the Ukrainian army in total by more than UAH 12 million, then they have a significant part of the funds from BLEST and my family. Therefore, the campaign to pay 5% of sales is a logical continuation of the already existing practice and social mission of the company, and the campaign itself is one of the tools to inform and attract new people to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, all employees of the BLEST company are also involved in helping the army, each of them creates products or services that ultimately help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

And I also want to note that we help not only the military. So, on the initiative of my wife, we completely transferred children's furniture from two stores to orphanages for displaced children in the cities of Chernivtsi and Cherkasy.

I also want to separately thank all the employees of the BLEST company who are actively involved in fundraising and transfer their donations for the army. And once again I want to note that there are no small donations: in total, after all, 20, 50 or 200 UAH, if multiplied by the number of participants, turn into a significant contribution. Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone!

And I want to note that in the All4Ukraine fund you can feel it when the payday is on BLEST. Although, I understand that now is a difficult time and the salary is not the same as before the war, but the flow of donations is increasing precisely from our employees. And I'm very proud of our people and our great team. Thanks everyone!

You are currently temporarily in Slovakia, and you said that you are cooperating with the Poles… Perhaps you communicate with citizens of other countries. Tell us, according to your impression, how do our neighbors see our war?

I think the key word here is "see". When the war began in 1914, the vast majority of people just "did not see" it. Everyone saw this full-scale war. I have observed in Slovakia queues of local residents in gun shops; I saw how my grandmother tried on a gas mask, apparently to escape from a chemical or nuclear attack ...

One way or another, our war affected all Europeans. A rise in prices has begun, and it continues now, for fuel, energy carriers, utility bills, food, etc. Europe has not seen such inflation for a very long time. All people are divided, conditionally, into three large parts: the first is a large category of people who sympathize, are afraid, want to help and are positively disposed towards the Ukrainians, and have the most negative attitude towards the Russians. Some part believes that the Ukrainians themselves are to blame - there was no need to provoke, and now we are suffering because of you, because we are forced to pay 20 or 30 euro cents more for each liter of gasoline, and the Ukrainians are to blame for this. The third part, conditionally, is neutral, the main thing is that nothing should fly into their yard.

In Slovakia, these groups of people are approximately equal. And in Poland, I would say that 70-80% support Ukraine, about 20% are neutral and 1-2% are inadequate. In each country, the attitude towards Ukrainians is different. You need to understand that a conditional German love for a Ukrainian continues to the supermarket checkout or gas station checkout, because he is forced to pay more because of this situation.

How do you see Ukraine after the war? Assuming we win, of course.

In general, people in anticipation of the future are characterized by emotional “swings”. When there are successes at the front, the majority begins to think that victory is close, then we will quickly rebuild and live better than in Europe. And when there is no good news, or they are bad, then it begins: “everything is lost”, “we are all going to die”.

The reality is quite different. It is psychologically easier for people to accept the fact of defeat or victory than to live in a "suspended" state of uncertainty. We even see this in Kyiv. There was a period of calm and people were walking freely on the streets, the parking lots under the shopping center were full of cars, and when there was a rocket attack for days, everyone began to hide again and the mood changed. We can clearly see this in our sales.

I think we will see different moods more than once: from “everything is bad” to “we will win and live”! The stakes are really high right now. Russia just won't back down. Europe and America also dropped their masks and called a spade a spade and announced their goals. It will also be difficult for them to give up. We are now in a phase of great confrontation: politically, militarily and economically, between Russia and the entire civilized world. They have no chance of winning. Yes, they can “drink blood”, destroy something else, break it, but no more. It's like Hitler had no chance to defeat the allied countries, so Russia has no chance either.

No one now knows when and how the war will end. Maybe it won't even depend on us. We just need to prepare for a long confrontation and the New Year is an optimistic date for the end of the war. And you need to get out of it.

What about after the war? Some more con A definite answer can be given closer to its end. It's one thing if it lasts a few more months, another if it lasts a few more years. Definitely, I am sure that this war will affect Ukrainians about their attitude towards their own country. For some reason, I am convinced that the price we pay and will pay in the end for independence from Russia and a turn towards European values ​​will destroy corruption as such. I expect that society will have zero tolerance for corruption and corrupt officials. That this step towards joining the European Union will make it necessary to fulfill a number of important and correct conditions. I have always said that the best option for us is to take European rules regarding the judiciary, finances, etc., adapt them minimally to our realities, than to invent a wheel. Definitely this path and these changes will give their positive.

In addition, we see from history that countries that suffered the most from hostilities, but behind which stood the right allies, they quickly rebuilt and became world market leaders. Here we can mention Germany, Japan, South Korea. In fact, there are many such examples.

The allies that we have now are investing heavily in weapons to protect us, although they are likely to be partially destroyed during the course of the war. We can also imagine how much money these countries then invest in our recovery. Therefore, I have such cautious optimism.

We hope that Ukraine will win an enchanting Victory! And yet after that, Russia will not go anywhere, it will always be our largest neighbor, we have the largest common border. How do you think we should get along with them? Can business and business representatives subsequently establish some more or less normal and predictable coexistence?

Coexistence is not only possible, it is inevitable. We cannot replace one neighbor with another. And here I see two main scenarios. When Russia loses, and it will certainly lose, the moment will come for it to choose one of two diametrically opposed options. The first is if Russia loses and the political leadership remains. Then they will close and follow the path of North Korea. They will close themselves from the whole world, as was the case with the Soviet Union. And here we will not need to close ourselves from them, but they will do everything themselves. And they are already preparing for this scenario. They have already introduced such a concept as "foreign agents", where they record everyone who seeks to develop some kind of contacts with the world, and who has at least once received at least 1 dollar from abroad. Now we have gone further: they record their citizens in the category of people who have fallen under foreign influence if they simply communicate with one of the foreigners. Thus, they want to sever any ties between Russians and the outside world. They also want to introduce exit visas, as was the case in the USSR. Russia is preparing to close itself from the inside and then we will not have to do anything except control our border.

Another option is that a military defeat will cause problems in the economy, a decline in the level of social security and, as a result, mass discontent among the population. And this will lead to a change in political leadership. Then they will follow the path of Germany after the Second World War. When the new elite begins to admit mistakes, they will debunk the cult of personality, as before with Stalin. People were told: the one who for you was the king and God - in fact, he is a scoundrel, a tyrant ... The same will happen to Putin.

This whole situation, in my opinion, became possible due to the total fooling of the population of Russia. Because of propaganda, they have been programmed for decades not to think critically. And in this case, it becomes empty in the head and any opinion can be inserted there: that Ukrainians are bad, they are Nazis, etc. And then they will replace the idea that Putin was bad, Ukrainians are really good, and they are all innocent, only Putin is to blame. And then they can try to establish some kind of dialogue. This will not be possible immediately, it will take some time.

It is necessary to understand sensibly that we have a large common border, we have mixed families, and in some form, sometime, this dialogue will begin to take place. I will say even more, when the German Nazis, years later, knelt in front of the monuments to the victims of the Holocaust or the victims of the Second World War and repented: we did not understand what we were doing, we did not realize what all this would lead to, then something began to change in societies from different sides.

In this case, some prerequisites for economic cooperation, the establishment of economic and social ties will begin to appear ... And by that time, there is nothing to talk about.

How do you see the development of BLEST? All of our goals, hopes and aspirations for 2022 seem to need to be reviewed. The whole company found itself in a situation for which no one was ready either economically, or psychologically, or professionally. How do you assess the state of the company in a full-scale war?

Let's start with the fact that when they talk about the economy of Ukraine in general: it will fall by so many percent, or by so much... Economic forecasts are one way or another... But before that, how to talk about it at all, we must admit that our financial and economic system has survived! That she even exists. Even if there is a fall of 30% or 50% - God bless him, the main thing is that the economy has not collapsed, the national currency has remained!! And this is the most important thing. This in itself is a huge achievement.

Therefore, when we talk about our company, the main thing is that it exists, it exists and has the ability to produce products! This is the most basic. In addition, in such turbulent times, when the demand for furniture changes depending on the arrival of rockets and geography, then any forecasts and plans are almost meaningless.

In my opinion, in wartime, everyone should be in their place and do what can and be useful in the way they can. I see how we are doing everything possible and impossible to get some orders, ensure the loading of factories and give people work, earnings.

We can only make forecasts for our production on the basis of clear forecasts for the entire economy. And for economic forecasts, military forecasts are needed. In addition, we constantly hear from some experts that the Belarusians will attack tomorrow, while others say they will never attack. This is from the same situation, whether they will use nuclear weapons ... No one knows for sure yet. Therefore, I see no reason to play any long-term forecasts or name and plan any numbers now.

But the fact that we retained our production capacity, retained our staff, retained the ability to produce products is our personal victory. This is the result of the correct actions of the team.

I communicate with representatives and owners of other furniture companies, and I see different actions of managers and owners. There are examples when companies no longer exist at all: either people and workers arrived or left, or the companies are located in the occupied territories. There are examples of companies in the west of Ukraine that have everything intact and even increased the volume of orders due to the migration of the population, and they receive atypical profits. Everything is different.

We balance somewhere in the middle. We do not have ups now, but there are no critical subsidences either. This will be our policy and strategy in the near future: to survive physically and economically for everyone, to save the company and employees.

How do you think, in modern conditions, how can the Ukrainian furniture market change?

I repeat, much will depend on the situation on the fronts. When the Rashists were near Kyiv, all shopping centers were closed. When they were driven from the Kiev region, the idea that shopping centers would open and start to give some kind of sales was shocking. But some time passed and the shopping centers again became full of people, sales are going on - a picture, as if before the war. Then rockets fly somewhere... And again the shopping centers are empty... On the basis of such situational things, it is impossible to build global forecasts.

But I spoke with some German furniture makers, and they say that they already have a fall in the furniture market. This is due to the rise in the cost of utility bills, energy carriers, fuel, products, etc. This concerns, let's say, the most needy layers and, accordingly, cheap segments of furniture. Families are beginning to redistribute their budgets and delay buying new furniture. This affects the market and sales.

The middle and premium segment has not yet experienced any changes. But if the situation drags on, then people from the middle segment will go down to the cheap one, and the premium will move to the middle one. In Germany for 2022-23. forecasts include a 30% drop. These are very serious numbers.

In Ukraine, anything can be predicted only for the post-war period. There will be a lot of housing in the country, which will require restoration, and this will most likely be carried out for some kind of grant funds: American, European. This will revive demand. And, most likely, there will also be a migration of the middle class to the lower segments, for some period of time. Therefore, we will feel a redistribution of demand within our lines. And where grant funds are used, we will see demand for the cheapest furniture.

In addition, it should be expected that when we become part of Europe, the borders for goods and capital will disappear, we will get many powerful European players in our market. And we need to get ready for it.

What would you like to say to every BLEST employee now?

First of all, I would like to thank each employee, colleague for finding the strength and inspiration in yourself at such a time to wake up in the morning and go to do your job, and the functions that the company needs and expects from you! This makes a huge contribution to the life of the company, to the work of our volunteer project. We began to allocate a certain percentage to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine in our sales, so the activity and involvement of each employee has an effect on the company and our army, and in general has a positive effect on the economy of our state.

I want each of us to believe in our Victory! We are very strong: morally, physically, psychologically. True, on our side and all reasonable and civilized this world is for us. The war will end, it won't last forever. And then we will all have a better, safer, more prosperous life and future. God is with us, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are with us and our team is with us!

What will you be the first to do when you find out that the moment of victory in the war has come?

When I discussed this topic with the military and volunteers, we agreed that we would have to celebrate for about a week! And the moment I find out about it… I will run down the street, hug strangers and shout: “Victory!!! VICTORY!!!" I will carry my wife in my arms, and I will throw my children up in happiness.

I think it will be a fantastic moment for everyone! The main thing is to believe! He will definitely be!