Object:
The bicycle saddle
The exhibition of the Museum of Resistance presents the bicycle saddle which belonged to one of the volunteers who delivered food for the people of Kherson and at the same time tracked the movement of enemy machinery.
Delivery, and more
This story is about how volunteers delivered lunches and tracked the movement of the invaders.
There are many stories about how the delivery services worked in Ukraine during the war. However, for many people of Kherson during the occupation, they became a real salvation.
When shops began to close in Kherson, and thus the food prices skyrocketed, volunteers united to prepare free lunches for people. This became a powerful example of how people didn’t give up, how they united to help each other. Volunteers found and delivered products through Russian checkpoints, formed food kits and distributed them among people. They tried to deliver food home to the people, who could not reach the points of distribution of humanitarian aid.
In volunteer headquarters some prepared hot lunches, others compiled the food packages. And those who had a car or even a bicycle delivered products to addresses.
A volunteer kitchen organized in Kherson by Oleksandr Shostak (one of the top 100 best chefs in Ukraine), Oleksiy Oleksandrov (Chef`s Club), and Ihor Kozlov (Muscat restaurant).
Photo: Ukrinform.
For some volunteers, bicycle delivery later became a serious business. Serhiy Zhigin from Kherson delivered humanitarian aid from the Red Cross during the occupation. After the liberation of the right-bank territories of Kherson Region, he organized his own business for delivering packages to the people with limited mobility and named it "Delivery of Happiness by Bicycle".
In interview for Suspilne.media Serhiy says:
"What should those who cannot come to the distribution of aid do, where should they get help? There are few bicycle volunteers, but they, like me, go to those in need at their own peril."
Kherson. Volunteer Serhiy Zhigin rides a bicycle to humanitarian aid recipients, April 2023
Photo: Suspilne Kherson.
However, bicycle delivery did not only make life easier for our people in the occupation. It made life harder for the invaders. In one of the kitchens, about which the Russians knew, but which they ignored until a certain moment, lunches were prepared and delivered to the neighborhoods. If the Russian military stopped a courier, they found food in his bags, and the volunteer would say: “I am taking it to the people”. Thus, volunteers on bicycles could more or less easily reach any remote areas of the city. Along the way, they spotted the locations of enemy equipment and shared this data with the Ukrainian military.
