The cyclists with Chumak Way want people to know what’s happening in Ukraine. They are travelling 10,000kms in 100 days because they want people to see them, ask them why they’re biking, and become curious why these men are taking this difficult journey around a continent far from home.
They’re doing this so people know there’s a war going on in Ukraine right now, a war caused by Russian aggression in the country. They also want people to know they’re just fighting to protect what’s theirs. They want people to meet veterans of the war who are cycling with them. Most of all, they want international support to pressure Russia to leave Ukraine alone, in order to return the nation to peace.
The ride was the brainchild of Konstantin Samchuk, one of the veterans of the war, who spoke to attendees at the St. Mary’s Cultural Centre about his experiences on the front lines through an interpreter. He also told the crowd that the conflict is still ongoing, with thousands killed either in fighting or due to landmines.
Maksym Semak is one of the riders on the tour, who got involved after meeting Samchuk.
“I would like to make the bicycle something more.”
The journey itself is a difficult one, Semak said, with very little sleep in order to maintain their schedule.
“It’s not only travel, it’s a social project. We have a strong schedule of 100 days... It’s really difficult because we cycle every day for 150 kms, in every weather condition, shower, raining, cold, strong wind, we do it, we’re cycling.”
Each day also involves sending updates back home on their progress. Semak says their home country has been supportive of the trip.
“They place many likes on our posts and videos... They couldn’t believe to the end that we could make it on this trip, and they elbow us on.”
Dmytro Trokin, another cyclist and the team mechanic, said their primary goal, telling people outside of the country what is going on in Ukraine, has been a success.
“From here people maybe cannot see everything because it’s far, and we have a lot of fake news. People ask a lot of questions about how and why, and we try to tell them what we know, because we have two veterans and they saw with their own eyes what was really going on.”
Ihor Ambroziak is the tour’s support driver. He explains that the bike tour was something very visible that could hit many towns and cities across the continent.
“We felt it was going to create more awareness than just showing up in Toronto or showing up in Vancouver, getting on TV.”
This is the second bike tour for Chumak way. They travelled 11,000 kms through Europe in 2016. On that first tour, they discovered that, outside of Ukraine, not much was known about what was happening in the country. While people knew about corruption or the Russian annexation of Crimea, they didn’t know much else.
“They didn’t know the Ukrainian people. People all across North America can meet these people face to face, ask questions, get the truth,” Ambroziak said.
The goal of the tour has been a success, as people see them biking in their bright yellow and blue cycling uniforms and ask what they’re doing. Ambroziak said that even in communities that aren’t “Ukrainian” they have many people asking them about their project and how they can help.
The goal is to end at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
