The Russia-Ukraine crisis is escalating, raising geopolitical tensions but both the Ukrainian people’s battle and Western efforts to support Kyiv continue. The war led to food, and fuel crises globally, with direct or indirect impacts on several industries, aviation being one of them.
Amid heightened tensions, a German-Ukrainian couple Fred Roeder and Maria Semykoz are trying to do their bid to stand with Ukraine’s defenders. On their official website, they mentioned that Semykoz is from Sievierodonetsk in the Donbas region of Ukraine, which is now under Russian occupation.
They said that they collectively came up with the concept of ‘Recycle Russia’ since they were aware that they wanted to aid the defenders.
‘Recycle Russia’ creates luggage tags out of the metal from a downed Russian SU-34 fighter plane in Ukraine.
Donors who donate the requested $399 will be sent a luggage tag as a thank-you from Roeder and Semykoz.
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Each tag contains information about the jet’s model, as well as the time and date it was shot down, the crash’s coordinates, and the tail number.
On their site, they wrote: “Russia’s fighter jets and helicopters terrorize Ukrainians. They kill with bombs, missiles, and salvos. Ukrainians defend their homeland and turn Russian war machines into scrap. We recycle this scrap into luggage tags. The money we raise goes to support Ukraine’s defenders.”
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Roeder told Airport Technology, “The Ukrainian unit that shot down the Russian SU-34 wanted to put this aggressive plane to good use and hence decided to collect the scrap of the plane and turn it into luggage tags.”
He added, “The donation will be used to purchase non-lethal aid such as surveillance drones and winter clothes for the unit that shot down the plane. Donations are tax-deductible in the US.”
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Maryan Zablotsky, a Ukrainian member of parliament, seized 60 of the luggage tags. Recycle Russia will allocate the funds to provide the unit with more drones and other non-lethal supplies.
Roeder, “In the future, we plan to provide luggage tags made out of Russian cruise missiles that targeted Kyiv.”
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