A Brantford man says he is selling T-shirts to help Ukrainians who helped him.
Steve Long, an officer with the Aylmer police service, spent one year in Ukraine as a member of a Canadian police mission in 2018.
He traveled much of the country that now has been invaded by Russia.
“I lived in an apartment in Kyiv right by the golden gate, which is an area I’m now watching on the news,” he said.
The T-shirts have a graphic representation of Ukraine in the country’s blue and yellow colours, with a red maple leaf in the centre.
“It represents the bond Canada has with Ukraine,” said Long. “The second largest population of Ukrainians in the world is right here in Canada.”
Long said the police mission he was part of is an international peacekeeping operation through the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that also had missions in Iraq, Haiti and Palestine. The RCMP would receive requests through the United Nations.
Mission candidates go through a selection process that includes reading, writing and physical tests and international law, human rights and first aid training.
“We took Ukraine-specific training about the culture, visited an Orthodox church, and learned the history of the country…,” said Long.
He helped develop a police motorcycle program in Ukraine. At the time of his deployment, he worked for Halton regional police.
“We initially trained 21 new motorcycle instructors because they never had them before,” he noted. “It was my expertise, and primarily why I was selected to go to Ukraine.”
Long said the mission’s overall objective was to bring about reform and stabilization, as the police were regarded as corrupt under earlier political regimes.
“We trained 200 to 300 police officers in my time there, and the reality is that some of them have been killed in this war,” he said. “I do daily check-ins with some of them.”
Throughout his stay in Ukraine, Long and his 21 colleagues relied heavily on interpreters, in particular two named Taras and Vadym, who will benefit from the funds raised by the sale of the T-shirts.
“There’s a lot of money globally being committed to Ukraine,” he noted. “A bunch of us mission members have formed a group and want to help those who helped us.”
Long said that Taras and Vadym have taken their wives and children to the Polish border, but the two men will remain in Ukraine.
“They will have sent their wives and children across the border with very little money and nothing to support them.”
He said he follows a woman on Instagram, who is the daughter of an officer co-ordinating civilian defense forces just north of Kyiv.
“The apartment below her got rocketed, and she was putting out the fire,” said Long. “I watch as best I can. But it’s really hard because I worry that one day (the Instagram posts) will stop.”
Long expected to sell T-shirts only among his colleagues. But a social media post resulted in a single order for 100 shirts, and in less than two weeks 300 shirts have been sold.
To purchase a shirt contact Long at: [email protected]
A slogan written in Russian beneath the shirt’s graphic may be offensive to some. It is the response from one of the Ukrainian soldiers defending an island in the Black Sea, who told an officer on board a Russian warship to “go f— yourself” when asked to surrender.