Entrepreneur Koen Koppens is currently in Ukraine for the first trade mission since the war. The trip has an extra meaning for him, because he has been closely involved since the start of the war, but has never set foot in the country.
Koen has been regularly delivering relief supplies to Ukraine for months. But he has never been there himself. “I’m stepping out of my comfort zone with this,” he says. We spoke to Koen before he boarded the plane. He stays in Lviv, in western Ukraine, away from the front lines, but he knows there is always danger.
Fathers saying goodbye
Koen himself cannot find a concrete reason why he has been so involved in the war since day one. “Somehow it hit me hard.” He always saw a danger in Putin, especially in the weeks before the war, and was finally vindicated when the first Russian troops crossed the border.
Then he saw a constant stream of images on the internet. “I saw fathers saying goodbye to their children to fight.” Koen is also a father himself. “That those men think: it is my country, I am going to fight for it. That did something to me.” Those images made him decide he wanted to help.
Inquire via Telegram
Koen himself has an IT company and, thanks to his technical background, was able to inform Russian citizens about the war via Telegram. He received different responses from the people he tried to inform. Some people wanted to talk to him and others ignored everything.
Later he donated his own diesel generator, which he actually had as a spare. “I could at least provide the street with light.”
Open your backpack
Because Koen is also a professional pilot, he participated in a mission by Ukraine Air Rescue to fly a plane full of medical supplies from Germany to Mielec, Poland, near the border with Ukraine.
The plane was completely full of backpacks. “We opened one of those backpacks to see what was inside.” There he saw all kinds of means to treat serious wounds. “Then you know it’s really serious.”
Mix of emotions
On the return flight they took a Ukrainian boy with leukemia from Poland to Basel, Switzerland. “It was his first time flying and he loved it, it was a huge mix of emotions that went through me.”
Through all these experiences, through which he got to know the people of Ukraine, he developed a love for the country. But Koen had never been there because the mission only went to the border and the other donations were made from the Netherlands.
A screw loose
Thanks to the trade mission, organized by the Dutch-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, he is now going to Ukraine for the first time. “I’ll pack the bag and go to a country I love and have never been.”
He doesn’t find it too exciting and jokes that there might be something loose in his mind. “Maybe I should be more concerned.” But he is aware that Ukraine cannot be compared with the Netherlands.
Life insurance
Koen has made some special preparations for the trip, especially for his family. He has asked whether something will happen to his life insurance if he accidentally dies. “They said there is nothing to worry about if I don’t fight at the front. It was special that it was possible.”
The fact that Koen wanted to inquire about his life insurance made it clear to him that this was not a normal trip. “You are going to a war zone.” But Koen goes at all costs, it remains an important trip for him because he has been involved for months. There was no discussion for his family and friends whether he could go or not.
