10/12/2022
BARBARA GISLASON’S RECENT TRIP TO KYIV
Introduction
I serve on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Paris-based Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), which was founded post-World War I Europe in 1927. The UIA is a leading international lawyer organization with members from 110 countries. As a leader of the UIA, I attended a consequential Board of Governors meeting this June in Warsaw. There, Joanna Wsoleck of the Krakow Bar Association, and Pavlo Lutsyuk, who served as the Vice President of the Rivne Bar Association, spoke with sincerity and passion.
Following their presentation, Joanna and Pavlo came back to my hotel (where I had brought medical supplies to be delivered to Ukraine), and we had a four-hour meeting. By July, I had permission from the UIA President, Herve Chemouli, and the UIA U.S. National Committee President, Peter Reyes, to represent the UIA in humanitarian efforts. Then I recruited trusted UIA lawyer colleagues, including Julie Flaherty, Jan Mulligan, Cheryl Nolan, Kimberly Fullerton, and Mira Vats Fournier, to help me.
I hosted a Zoom meeting involving President Petro Boyko of the Kyiv Regional Bar Association that has 11,000 members, and Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA) President Paul Peterson and Executive Director Cheryl Dalby that has 14,000 members to discuss aid. The MSBA had already garnered a national reputation for its efforts to assist lawyers who lost everything along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. The MSBA readily agreed to facilitate donations.
This led to my traveling to Krakow, Poland, and then to Rivne, Ukraine, and then to Kyiv, Ukraine in September 2022. While there, I learned from highly respected Ukrainians about the unaddressed need to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Efforts are now under way to establish a non-profit in Minnesota to launch a significant Ukrainian humanitarian effort.
This Is My Story
Two weeks ago, I was meeting face-to-face with lawyers from northwest of Kyiv whose lives were destroyed following the attacks there from Russia and Belarus. These meetings were organized by the Kyiv Regional Bar, as well as the Krakow Bar. It took me until now to distill my experience there, as I wanted to share it in the right way.
I traveled with lawyers from the Kyiv Regional Bar to Borodanka, Bucha, and Irpin, where we met two distinct groups of lawyers who suffered horrific losses and listened to their stories. You will see photos of that journey here. My interview of these lawyers was translated. These are some of the common themes of what these lawyers shared with me:
1. My children were in the basement next door hiding while soldiers were searching for children to take to Belarus (where their identities would be lost).
2. The Russians and Chechens came through my door and threw me against the wall and beat me while others destroyed my house and took everything in it. I thought they would kill me, but somehow, when someone brought to their attention that I was a lawyer and there were children in the house, they became less violent and left.
3. Buildings were on fire in my neighborhood and people were hiding in the basement there. The Russians prevented them from getting out.
4. Neighbors outside of a building were trying to help those trapped, but the Russians prevented them from getting in or forced them in the basement, where they burned.
5. The building that I live in was bombed, but as I have dogs, ferrets, etc., I am still living here because I have no other place to go that allows pets. I realize the building could fall on me.
6. Why are they killing us?
The next significant day of my trip involved meeting with volunteers who called themselves hospitallers and a non-military battalion. They seemed to be a combination of volunteer first responders and medics who go to the front lines with the army to save lives. Some of the young men and women I met had already been seriously injured but were returning to the front lines. One young woman had gotten tuberculosis, another young woman shot in the leg, plus shrapnel in her arms. She told me, when I quietly asked her if she had lost anybody, that her best friend had died from a bullet to the head on the front lines the day before. She then said she could not talk about it. A young man looked like his face has been sewn back on.
I spent hours visiting with these hospitallers in their canteen and observed how much these young people loved each other. I cannot say enough about them. They had a base dog that seemed vigilant. I am not sharing any of the pictures I took of the hospitallers until I can take the geo markers off. If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know.
One thing that struck me in a way that I cannot exactly explain is that these hospitallers thought I was brave to be there. It made me think about how low the standards are for bravery when I was looking at the truly brave and courageous.
If you want to help, here are donation locations I would recommend:
Charitable Organization « Charity Foundation for Aiding Advocates Kyiv Region» registered under 44872860
Bank details: Beneficiary: CO CFAAKR
Account nr: UA82 3005 2800 0002 6008 0000 24273
Beneficiary’s bank: OTP Bank JSC
Swift code: OTPVUAUK
If you would like to help with humanitarian aid, including the purchase of ambulances, medical equipment, and supplies, please give to the Krakow Bar Association as follows:
Krakowska Izba Adwokacka
Batorego 17, 31-135 Kraków, POLAND
IBAN: PL 65 1050 1445 1000 0090 3043 5714
BIC (SWIFT): INGBPLPW, sort code: 105014
bank: ING BANK SLASKI S.A.
Transfer title: « self-management of the Bar: Aid for Ukrainian lawyers »
The Krakow Bar Association is currently collecting to buy a trailer for one of the lawyers I met, whose home was destroyed. I will keep posting here about ways to help, and the expertise of my friend is always welcome.
Post Scrip
Last Sunday, we had the most successful Zoom meeting to date across the U.S., Poland, and Ukraine about addressing Ukrainian mental health needs. It was 12 hours later that Russia launched a major attack on Ukraine, including Rivne and Kyiv.
