A powerful, symbolic gift

We want to give a gift to President Zelinksyy. A gift that highlights the importance of the humble bicycle in the war effort - enabling Ukrainians to help each other by delivering food, water, medicine, humanitarian aid and the post to the most vulnerable citizens in the most devasted areas. The drums of war are thunderous but beneath the powerful percussion, the bicycles are the sweet, string music of the war orchestra. We have even given bikes to soldiers on the front lines near Bahkmut, who are testing the usefulness of simple bicycles in a war zone. A study that hasn’t been done in over 70 years.

We also hope that our gift will involve a shout-out to the many individuals and smaller organisations that are active in Ukraine. One person, or a couple, who are in the country and trying to help. Passing beneath the media radar but still persevering in their effort to Stand With Ukraine.

In addition, the Ukrainian bicycle industry needs to rise again so the media coverage of this gift-giving will place a focus on them, too.

Our founder Mikael - expert in urbanism and TV-host of the global series The Life-Sized City will be in Kyiv and Ukraine for most of June. Ready to deliver the bike to Zelinskyy. The bike in question was made at the Kharkiv Bicycle Factory in 1982 - a factory that made 30 million bikes between the 1920s and 1990s. It was donated by a citizen in Budapest and now Mikael has brought it home. A special bike for a special person - Zelinskyy, on behalf of the Ukrainian people. The bike needs some work and some love - but it still rolls. It is resilient, reliable, durable and easy to fix - which is our best metaphor for Ukraine.

Mikael’s team is now also involved in planning the bicycle infrastructure in Mykolaiv and his book about designing cities for bikes was published late last year - one of only 150 books published in Ukraine since the full invasion started. His next book will be out in a few months - 50 Ideas for Ukraine - curated articles from his global network about ideas that Ukraine can be inspired by as the cities and towns are rebuilt.

Bikes4Ukraine has worked as an NGO in Ukraine since July 2022. We will continue because the need for used bikes from Europe is great and the list of cities, towns and NGOs in Ukraine who are asking for bikes grows every day. We have delivered 900 bikes to NGOs in over 30 cities and towns across the country. Instagram: @bikes4ukraine

Mikael would be honoured to give the gift of the bike - and a copy of his book - to the President. We are pragmatic about the fact that the exposure will benefit our media awareness and hopefully generate more crowdfunding (which we rely on) and partners who can help ship more bikes to Ukraine. But at the core is our desire - symbolic and poetic - to give this gift to Zelinskyy.