Gratitude

When JD Vance asked Zelenskyy "Have you said 'thank you' once?" during his and Trumps pile-on in the White House in 2025, it revealed a couple of things (and none of them about Zelenskyy or Ukraine).

1. Vance is super out of touch: Zelenskyy had at that point repeatedly thanked the US and the West for their support.
2. Vance has never visited Ukraine: Ukrainians are overwhelmingly thankful and showering foreigners with gratitude.

In fact, as a somewhat timid and humble Finn, the gratitude of the Ukrainians is sometimes bordering on embarrassing for me. Like most Finns, I often downplay my contributions as "it's not much, but we do our best" and similar statements - it's basically how Finnish society works. But the Ukrainians won't take no for an answer and want so very much to give something back.

We're used to receiving diplomas and small gifts as thanks for bringing our rusty cars and equipment, and sometimes we are treated to dinner (usually with lots of vodka). However, what we experienced in the Dmytrivka Settlement in Chernihiv region on our last delivery was something else entirely.

We were bringing the settlement a sorely needed new fire engine. Their only other fire truck was from the fifties, and a rental at that. The one we brought wasn't new by any means, but at least it was from the 21st century and thus probably fifty years younger than the old one. We heard that the settlement(s) of Chernihiv had been left almost completely without outside support, even though they had gone through a month long russian occupation at the start of the full scale invasion and had much of their infrastructure and equipment damaged, destroyed or stolen. Ukraine has very limited funds and more pressing matters closer to the front line, so it can in a way be understood even if it sucks for the people living in the settlements.

The old fire truck (and Mark).

So when we arrived, it was a big deal for the locals. And I mean HUGE. There was a welcoming committee waiting for us outside the settlement, at a crossroads where the russians had been stopped, consisting of the mayor and other high officials in suits and women in traditional dresses greeting us with a beautiful sweet bread baked as a work of art. There were speeches and national anthems played. And then we drove into the settlement itself in a convoy, complete with police escort.

The author and the gifted bread.

Everyone was taking the day off to come see us rolling in, with people standing along the roads everywhere. Out first stop was at the war heroes cemetery, where we laid a wreath and held a minute of silence for the fallen.

After that we continued to the fire station where all the fire fighters of the village were waiting for us to arrive. They were all older men (since the younger ones are at the front lines) and did their best to hide their excitement, but were very eager to open the storage compartments of the truck and examine all the equipment inside.

Fire fighters looking at things.

We stayed for about an hour, explaining the functioning of the fire truck to the best of our ability and taking pictures for donors etc. Then we continued on to the hospital, where a rather surprised group of nurses were waiting. The whole settlement had known well in advance that they were going to get the fire truck. What no one knew (because it was a last minute decision) was that they'd also get an ambulance. Truly Christmas came early!

The Zero Line team with the nurses at the hospital.

At this point, we were packing our cars and preparing to start driving back to Kyiv but the villagers had other plans. We were told to follow them, and they took us to the local school. There we again received an over-the-top welcome, by school girls in traditional clothes reciting poems for us. And that was just the beginning - we were then lead up to the auditorium where there were multiple song and dance performances, more speeches, presentations about the russian occupation, and honoring of the village's fallen soldiers with a touching song in their honor as their images were displayed on the screen.

Promising young dance artists at Dmytrivka Lyceum.

And after all of this? Surely we'd be on our way now? Oh no. Now we were ushered into the cafeteria where a full spread was laid out on the table waiting for us, vodka and everything.

Borsch and a myriad of other local delicacies for our enjoyment.

The locals had really pulled out all the stops to thank us. The school children alone must have spent weeks, if not months, practicing their dance performances, and all that food must have taken a lot of people the whole morning to make. We also got diplomas and beautiful, hand crafted dolls as gifts, along with some other things like mugs and Ukrainian flags. It was all so overwhelming, it took me a few days to process and really appreciate it all.

So, JD, if you still think Ukrainians don't show their gratitude, then I don't know what to say. And above all: in the end, it is us that should be thankful to the Ukrainians. They are the ones who stopped the russian onslaught through their bravery, sacrifice and force of will. All we have to do is send whatever materials we can to help them, which is a very small ask in my opinion.