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Yuriy Nechayev, war volunteer on the bike
”I never regret what I am going through now,” Yuryi Nechaev, lawyer who became a humanitarian volunteer
Text by Dima Gadomsky, Olena Makarenko, Conal Campbell. Photographs by Maria Matiashova. War by russia.
If you want to help Yuriy and all Ukrainian lawyers to defend our country, please donate us at INDIEGOGO.
Yuryi Nechaev, a partner at AVELLUM, joined the volunteer movement in Kyiv from the beginning of the full-scale war. His main activity now is to deliver food for elderly people. Yuryi uses a bicycle that is at least 10 centimeters lower than needed. Yuryi got it from his teenage son whom he sent to Bulgaria on the second day of the war.
“In a volunteer chat, I saw a message that people who can deliver food are needed. I wrote there. It turned out that it was for the Borshahyvka district. I thought that I was lucky because I had this bicycle. I don’t have a car.”
As a result, Yuryi rides it every day. He travels about 20 kilometers a day in his district. The amount of orders depends on the day.
“Yesterday, I delivered 32 lunches,” Yuryi says.
He and other volunteers receive this food for free from other people who find it and cook it.
“There was such an interesting situation when I came to a place nearby, to Pokotylo Street, left the bicycle, and a woman came down to me and said ‘It’s for my neighbor. And the neighbor is blind, she can’t walk, it’s for her.’ I said ‘Okay, take it.’ She answered ‘No-no-no, let’s go up because it could be a hoax and I want you to be sure that it’s a real case’. She even showed her ID card. She says ‘Come on, come on, quickly, it’s fast, no one will steal your bicycle during this time.’ I went up, looked, took pictures of everything there for the report, and went back down. There, two guys from the territorial defense said ‘Boy, do you even understand what district you are in!?’. I said ‘Of course, I understand, I live here’ ‘Don’t leave your bicycle here, because in a minute it’ll disappear!’ they warned me.
Yuryi tries to calm some people down. To those who are afraid of explosions, he explains that Ukrainian artillery works and says that everything is fine.
Yuryi is going to volunteer like that as long as it’s needed. For him, the end of the war will come when economic activity is recovered and those people who lost their jobs will be able to provide for themselves, additionally the state would also provide partially.
The war for Yuryi, as for many people, started from the sounds of explosions. His parents who live in Bulgaria came to Ukraine for so-called medical tourism just before it.
“They usually find the ‘right’ time to come. The last time they came was two years ago, back then, they were stuck here because of Covid-19. This time it is very good that they came. They managed to take out my son.”
During the first day of the war, Yuryi and his family planned everything and stocked up some food. Later, he gave the majority of it to the humanitarian headquarters.
“As a vegetarian and a raw foodist, I don’t eat what they [his parents] bought for themselves.”
We spoke to Yuryi about the fear of war, expectations, and changes it made within the Dead Lawyers Society.
Were you afraid when you heard the explosions?
No.
And were you afraid later? Do you have an explanation why you aren’t afraid? The thing is that it’s not only you. I’m not scared either, and I’m trying to understand why. We are at war. Why is it not scary?
I think everyone has their own reasons. I was preparing for this, probably in advance, because I switched to vegetarianism, to raw food. The worldview, too — I always tried to prepare myself for death and for not being afraid of it. I’ve tried to cultivate some kind of stoicism in myself.
You did not understand that there would be a war. You were just preparing yourself. For what?
Look, I’m always ready for the worst. I’m ready for….I don’t know … for a black car coming after me, or that I am taken to a concentration camp. I have always expanded the range of what is comfortable for me. I was ready for everything. I hoped there would be no war, but I admitted that it’ll come.
And why did you prepare yourself for this? What was the incentive?
These are not some external incentives. I just try to prepare myself for everything that can happen — that I may lose my family, that I may lose my wife, my child, parents, and relatives. And despite that, I have to live on, I have to stay calm. One of my favorite phrases in the movie Bridge of Spies is when a Soviet spy is asked “Aren’t you worrying when you are told that you will be [killed]…” And he answers “Will it help?”. I’ve been preparing for this for a long time, so I see that worrying doesn’t help.
Do you think you are now in the right place in what you are doing?
Yes. I told my wife about it. On the first-second day, I signed up for various volunteer movements … I applied and waited, I was constantly checking where I could [be useful] … In the first days, I went to the humanitarian headquarters, where I helped unload trucks, but it was not constant work. Correspondingly, in the early days, I was looking for a place to find myself. When I found a thing to help the elderly — it was a dream job for me because my wife and I used to help different children. We have a company Pro bono Committee, we have wards in a family-type orphanage. Now, we continue working with them. They were evacuated to Poland and now we are helping them through my brother, who is also volunteering in Warsaw. We are helping them to move forward. We also had some kind of pro bono movement at the company. It was close to me personally for many years already.
And you mentioned work. That you still work. How much do you work in general and what are your plans for returning to business? What will happen to the business after another month, two or three of war? Or what will happen to business now? What are your predictions?
Look, we have work, but it’s not much — maybe 5–10% of what was before the war, and depending on the practice. For example, last week was quite easy …
What practice do you have?
Corporate M&A. But there is really little work there. We expect that the work will resume no earlier than summer. This is an optimistic scenario, and most likely, a little later — maybe in the fall.
If there is war in April-May. And according to your prognosis, the work will resume. Does it mean that the war will end in April?
Yes.
In May we will take work gradually and in the summer work and payments of clients will start.
Yes.
Do you have dreams?
Yes. Just today I described a dream to my wife: I see our fighters shooting down a Russian bomber, it falls somewhere close to me, and I am falling down to the ground.
And you carry its pieces to the elderly on your bicycle!?
No-no-no, he’s still moving and I’m kicking him … He’s so small in my dream. Well, it’s interesting, I had this dream just today.
We asked Yuryi what message from him should we pass to our next interviewees. And he said this:
In fact, these are tragic times, because we are losing our lives, and life is the most important thing for us, in our country, in our value system. Not the land, but people’s lives. But I would never have changed it … I never regret what I am going through now. If I were in Mariupol, I would also like to have this attitude. I don’t know if I would. But I never said, ‘I’d rather have Friday now and do things I usually do on Fridays in peacetime.’”
What do you usually do on Friday?
I have a rest, my wife and I go somewhere, we watch movies, and just relax. And when you hear gunshots and have to go to a bomb shelter, it’s a little different experience than before the war.
Do you go to a bomb shelter every time?
No, I did during the first days. Now, if something like that happens, we just sit behind two walls at home.
In a corridor?
Yes.
Classic.
So, if you pass along something from me — I would not say ‘Enjoy’. There is nothing to enjoy, but try to make the most of this time, because it is really possible. In my opinion, our people leveled-up so much. This does not mean that everyone became super-developed at once, but everyone has this quality.
What was this “level up” about?
In terms of state of consciousness. On the first day of the war, I, like most people, went to a shop and stood in a line. I see people, half an hour after the beginning of the war I am standing in line. Of course, I forgot to take a mask with me, so I covered myself with a jacket. A woman standing in front of me said ‘Take a mask, at our work they gave it for free.’ No fear, no panic — on the contrary, we help each other. As well, in the line. We were standing there, everyone was calm, there was no rudeness, everyone was friendly to each other. My colleague said the same about the time he was driving on the Zhytomyr highway in the first days of the war to the west. Despite all these traffic jams, he saw no rudeness at the road that he had seen regularly before. Although it seems that stress should do the opposite — to unbalance you so you show your worst sides. It did not happen. While I live in Kyiv, even when these grandmothers ask me, ‘What’s up, what are these explosions?’ They are still a little worried, but I have never seen panic during all this time.
Do you already have an idea of what you will do the first day after the war is over? Who will you meet, or will you do any activity?
Nothing special. For me, war is not a moment like “Something has started and you have to go to the end of it.” The question is what is better — the process or the result? For me it is the same as asking ‘who do you love more — mom or dad?’ Both are important. For now, I’ll see how I feel after the war. I will do something that will suit my inner feelings.
If you want to help Yuriy and all Ukrainian lawyers to defend our country, please donate us at INDIEGOGO.
