Northlander Jack Topzand is volunteering in Ukraine helping with emergency response and reconstruction work.
A Northland man “appalled” at the ongoing war in Ukraine has spent the past five months braving drone strikes while delivering humanitarian aid as a volunteer.
Thirty-year-old Jack Topzand, from Kerikeri, travelled to Ukraine in July to volunteer with Czech Republic-based organisation Koridor UA, which was founded in 2022 as a response to the desperate situation of civilians in the war.
Having studied international politics at university, and with friends in Ukraine, Topzand said he had a growing connection to the country and felt he could be useful there.
“As the war dragged on, I noticed people in New Zealand were forgetting about it, and I wanted to raise awareness that it’s still happening.
“I was appalled not enough was being done, and I had a growing sense I should help them myself.”
Topzand spent the first month in Kyiv then settled in Mykolaiv, where he works mainly in emergency response and reconstruction work, helping repair civil buildings – mainly schools – damaged from drone and missile strikes.
With a small team of up to 10 international volunteers, he cleans up the debris, then patches up the buildings to make them weather-tight.
“Because the damage is so extensive, the local government doesn’t have time or money to repair everything.
“So we try to get them operational again.”
Topzand’s volunteer work also takes him to Kherson, on the front line about 60km from Mykolaiv, to deliver first aid equipment to hospitals.
Wearing body armour and helmets, Topzand and his fellow volunteers drive under huge nets suspended above the roads.
That’s because, in many towns and cities near the front, Russian drones are deliberately attacking civilians, aid workers and emergency responders.
The disused fishing nets – sourced from Europe including fishing ports along France’s Brittany coast – form tunnels that protect people driving, walking or cycling within them.
Koridor UA sources the nets for free, then transports them where they are needed.
With the threat of drone strikes and bombs a constant reality, Topzand said he has to be careful.
“When you go to these places that have been bombed, a lot of them were damaged earlier in the war and have been sitting there for years.
“Those that have been recently bombed, you have to be more careful.”
Though daily life in Mykolaiv is relatively “normal”, Topzand said there were constant reminders of the war that has dragged on since 2022.
Every day there are air alerts letting them know drones are coming; sometimes they last a few hours, sometimes all day.
“You have to be careful where you go.
“You’ll come around a corner and there’ll be a building with a giant hole in it.”
While in Kyiv a Shahed drone [unmanned combat aerial vehicle] landed a few hundred metres from where he was staying, and earlier this month, one flew over the house when he was cooking dinner, exploding in a nearby carpark.
He can hear automatic gunfire “going off the whole time”.
Despite this, Topzand said he doesn’t feel unsafe.
“We’re in good hands; Ukraine is doing a very good job of keeping us safe.
“I find it extremely fulfilling; when you go to these places you see how much support is needed.”
Topzand is returning to New Zealand in January to help his parents with their business, Blue River Orchard, which sells fresh blueberries and icecream in Kerikeri.
He said he’ll be sad to leave, though – perhaps because it’s zero degrees in Ukraine and he was in the middle of a blackout - he’s looking forward to catching Northland’s summer.
“Ukraine has been very welcoming; the people are very good at making you feel at home.
“When I say I’m from New Zealand it evokes a strong reaction from people, they are surprised I’d come such a long way to help them.
“It makes them feel they’re not alone and the world hasn’t forgotten.”
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.