Zsolt Kükedi, EESC member, Hungary

Mr Kükedi talks with us about his engagement to help Ukrainians in Ukraine and in Hungary

As a delegate from an environmental organisation, I know that there is very little we can do now, as this situation is not conducive to environmental considerations. On the other hand, even the simplest sign of interest, compassion and offer of minimal help are great for those hosting refugees. During my regional development work, I got to know a lot of local mayors, county leaders who immediately and selflessly offered their community houses and common areas to refugees after the war began. There was a settlement of barely 700 people that accommodated more than one hundred people. It has been giving them food ever since, keeping a roof over their heads and washing their clothes. Immediately after the outbreak of the war, when I returned home from the EESC plenary session, I wrote to 18 local government members, mayors and county leaders in eastern Hungary asking what was happening to them and what we might be able to help them with from faraway Budapest. I didn’t plan on rushing to the border either, as in the early days, enthusiastic volunteers have organisational issues in humanitarian work.

Nine of the 18 people I contacted responded. The others presumably didn’t have time to read or reply to emails, which is completely understandable in this situation. Those who responded, however, said that my letter was reassuring to them. Not even offering actual help, but just the fact that we were thinking of them and their realisation that we were somebody to whom they could turn which was very good to hear. Someone asked for money because they needed blankets and detergents. Someone redirected me to where donations were requested. But overall, they promised to appear if the situation stabilised, and they could no longer bear it financially or personally.

As I write these lines, I know that I’ll be home again soon and will write to those nine respondents again about what’s going on right now and what they need now. We also discussed how long it had been since we met and although this sad situation has brought us back together, we would definitely take the time to meet up in person. Nothing is more important than having friends we can rely on.

We also took part in another form of help: collecting medical supplies and sending them to those in need who are unable to obtain them in this situation. Many people are prevented from performing their bodily needs naturally due to a defect or disease affecting some parts of the digestive or urinary tract. This is a terrible condition. Bodily waste is excreted through a stoma in a specific location in the abdominal wall. We delivered stoma bags from my wife’s workplace, as a patient needs one bag a day and then has to throw it away for reasons of hygiene. On the other hand, you can't live without it for a day, because then you can only live an inhuman life. Transporting this vital bag was surprising. However, our lives are complex enough to understand that in a situation like this, we also have to make unusual donations.

At the request of the EESC, in our section meetings we discussed the Ukrainian-Russian war and its impact on the EESC. In the TEN section, I was asked to call a speaker from the battlefield, as well as a nuclear expert, to understand the threat surrounding Ukrainian nuclear power stations. As I have a lot of personal acquaintances in Ukraine due to my development work, I managed to connect with Serhii Prokopenko, a young man from Kharkiv, a young innovation and entrepreneurship specialist, a consultant and a new economic researcher who was able to present the war to us. He reported straight from the battlefield from a bunker in Kharkiv because the area he was in had been bombed shortly before the broadcast. He also had to change for a while with the Hungarian nuclear expert who came after him, because the internet connection stalled. Dr Zsolt Hetesi, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Public Administration, has been involved in environmental, energy and sustainability research since 2005. Previously, as one of the leaders of the Research Group on Sustainable Development and Resources, he has talked a lot about the crisis resulting from overpopulation and over-consumption of resources. As an expert on resource depletion, he presented the situation, vulnerability and chances of a potential nuclear disaster at any of the four nuclear power plants in Ukraine. He tried to reassure the audience that for the time being, the world does not seem to be in immediate danger from these nuclear power plants. This presentation was followed by Serhii, and as he spoke we could feel the reality of war. He received a big round of applause. The section sympathised sincerely with his account, and we couldn’t really focus on what the TEN section was doing.

I feel that this is also a humanitarian task: to connect with the people who are isolated by the war and to throw away our apparent sense of security so that the wind of reality can strike us and we feel that we have tasks to do from afar.

As a Christian, I empathise with everyone who is suffering or dying during this war. As an environmentalist working on resource depletion, I understand that we need to share more and more of our shrinking resources. Here in Brussels, I often give one or two euro to homeless people living in the metro or on the street. And when I get home, I wonder what I can do to help those who are constantly on duty, or even those in some form of need.

Zsolt Kükedi, EESC member, Hungary