The short version
- LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik, Trade Union leader Mette Nord and Fellesforbund leader Jørn Eggum have been in Ukraine this week, where they brought a lot of equipment, including drones.
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The bus drove in a procession of six large cars fully loaded with equipment, which LO together with the organization Fritt Ukraina drove to Ukraine this week.
Along for the ride were LO’s three leaders: LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik, Trade Union leader Mette Nord and Fellesforbund leader Jørn Eggum.
VG wrote on Wednesday that they had to go to the shelter twice on the night of Wednesday after the flight alarm in the city they visited in Ukraine, Lviv, went off twice. Six Russian rockets were shot down outside the city.
- Two of the most special contributions that the LO motorcade contains are five drones.
- And “Operation children’s bus”; a nine-seater bus to be used to transport children who have been kidnapped by Russian forces.
“Operation barnebuss” is a joint project between Fellesforbundet and Fagforbundet, LO’s largest confederation, in collaboration with the organization “Free Ukraine”, which also organizes LO’s trip to Ukraine.
– The bus will be used by Ukrainian special forces who will operate inside Russia and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. They will find the children, transport them to the Ukrainian border, where the bus will take them safely home to their families, says the LO leader.
She says that it is so shocking that she is almost unable to express herself.
– Imagine how a child experiences being kidnapped during a war, taken away from their loved ones and taken out of the country to Russia. Think what it does to families. It is almost unbearable.
She enthusiastically adds:
– We will get children out of Putin’s clutches. We must at least make the Ukrainian authorities better able to do that, she says.
Følsvik says that delivering this bus is one of the most important contributions during the trip.
– I can hardly imagine contributing anything better than such a bus, which can hopefully bring desperate Ukrainian children back to their families. It’s great to be involved, says the LO leader.
The bus arrived in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Tuesday night after a long drive through Sweden and Poland.
Jørn Eggum was with the entire trip from Oslo to Ukraine, while the LO leader and Mette Nord arrived from Warsaw.
– One of the worst things about this war is that the Russians have kidnapped around 20,000 Ukrainian children and taken them to Russia. It is completely impossible to understand. The war itself is madness, but what the Russians are doing to Ukrainian children is so terrible that it is almost incomprehensible, says Eggum.
He is usually known as the wage settlement general in LO, as head of LO’s largest private sector union, the Federation of Commons.
– When we heard about it, there was never any doubt. We wanted to contribute to this, he says.
In Lviv, it was a grateful assistant ombudsman, Taras Podvirnyy, who received the minibus with room for nine.
Traded for soldiers
– Exposing children to something like this is one of the worst abuses and violations of human rights that Russia stands for in its attacks on our country, he says.
– How do you find and manage to get the children back?
– We use many methods to map where the children may be. Some are in orphanages and in occupied areas in Ukraine. We also use other countries as intermediaries, including Turkey and Qatar.
He says that some children also return through exchange negotiations, connected to the exchange of soldiers.
– We have gotten some of the children out that way.
– 338 children rescued
Podvirnyy happily gets into the car.
– It looks modern and fast. It happens that we need to drive very fast when we have managed to get a child out.
He says that a number of children kidnapped by the Russians, whom they manage to bring back, have lost their families.
– We do not send them to orphanages, but make sure that they get foster parents in safer surroundings than an orphanage.
He says that there are now 19,546 missing children registered who, through mapping, have concluded that they have been kidnapped to Russia or Ukrainian areas occupied by the Russians.
– So far we have managed to bring back 388 children, he says.
The initiative for “Operation children’s bus” came precisely from the ombudsman for civil rights in Ukraine.
LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik sat behind the wheel of the children’s bus for the last five hours into Lviv.
There they also met representatives of various Ukrainian authorities, and their sister organizations in the trade union movement.
– I am traveling here because it is important to show solidarity with Ukraine and support them as best we can. And meeting them here has also been important in order to show them that we and large parts of the world support them wholeheartedly: to give them hope that it is possible to continue in this. Because so many stand with them, says Følsvik.
She says they have had close contact with the Ukrainian trade union movement for many years.
– I have sat in board meetings on “teams” with them and literally heard the bombs go off behind them. Now we are here and are very happy to be able to be here physically and give them all the support we can.
She says they also work closely with their own red-green government and have received support for the trade union movement in Ukraine to receive support.
– We have demanded that the trade union movement down here should have an important role and get Norwegian support, when the Støre government in its Nansen package, which is to be used in the reconstruction of Ukraine, We have received positive signals about that.
On Tuesday this week in Lviv, the Norwegian LO entered into a cooperation agreement with the Ukrainian trade union movement, which will precisely ensure long-term support from the LO and Norway.
In total, the LO family gave around ten million kroner to Ukraine after the war broke out.
There are different figures on how many have died in Ukraine.
The Ombudsman says they use the following figures from the UN for the whole of Ukraine as a basis:
8,000 civilians are killed or missing, around 30,000 military personnel are missing or killed.
Trade union leader Mette Nord says they are fighting a battle for Europe.
– If Putin fights Ukraine, he will not give up. He will move on to other countries. This must be stopped. We must fight his plans for a great empire and we have to take that fight here, she says in the square in Lviv, the Ukrainian city which lies about an hour inside Ukraine, towards the border with Poland.
“Operation children’s bus” is an initiative to help Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russian forces during the war between Russia and Ukraine. The project involves the use of a specially equipped minibus to transport the children back to Ukraine from Russia or Russian-occupied areas.
The initiative came from the ombudsman in Ukraine and is a collaboration between LO’s largest confederation, Fellesforbundet and Fagforbundet, and the Norwegian organization “Free Ukraine”. They work to carry out rescue operations in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to return kidnapped Ukrainian children to their families.
According to reports, the Russians have kidnapped around 20,000 Ukrainian children and taken them to Russia. So far, the project has managed to save 388 of these children.
Ordinary people can contribute by supporting organizations working in Ukraine, such as the Red Cross, Norwegian People’s Aid and Free Ukraine.
This article was created using AI tools from OpenAI, and quality assured by VG’s journalists.
Nord says it is their colleagues who are dying.
– It is impossible to put into words – or to comprehend. We see that it is our colleagues who are on the front line, health workers, people who work in the power plants, yes, everywhere, they are fighting a battle, both to survive – and not least working around the clock to help compatriots who are injured, says North.
– War is hell
– This is solidarity in practice, Eggum continues:
– We support our trade union comrades in Ukraine. By making such a trip, we get experiences that you don’t get by sitting in an office in Oslo. And it is easily summarized after the days here in Ukraine: War is hell. I am so proud of what our union comrades here achieve and I am very happy that we can contribute.
Seven buses/cars that drove from Oslo became six after one of them broke down. It is in a workshop outside Warsaw, fully loaded with camouflage netting, and will be driven to Ukraine once repaired.
In the cars that were distributed between various recipients in Lviv, there were also five drones, camouflage nets, medical equipment, power generators, computer equipment, PCs and printers.
And aquavit, chocolate and salmon.
– The latter is included as a courtesy gift, says union leader Anne Berit Aker Hansen of the Norwegian Trade Union Confederation (NNN).
Gifts for intelligence
It is not only the trade unions that receive equipment.
– GUR, which is the military part of Ukraine’s intelligence, has suffered some major losses recently, and we are now helping to deliver a lot of computer equipment and cars. The two Nissan pathfinders that we have with us are to be handed over to GUR, says Følsvik.
The LO tour is organized and organized by the organization Fritt Ukraina, which was started by the right-wing leader Peter Frølich, a year and a half ago.
He brought with him several former key employees in the staff of former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, including Morten Wetland and Torbjørn Giæver Eriksen – and author Roy Jacobsen.
Giæver Eriksen is a board member of the organization and led the LO tour.
700 drones
– We will help the forces in Ukraine. We have been down there 27 times with cars and equipment. We collect money in Norway, a total of NOK 100 million so far, in donations from companies and individuals, including equipment. Then we get specific requests for equipment from our partners in Ukraine, which we try to find.
He says it mostly goes to cars, pickups and SUVs – 150 so far, which have been bought used in Norway, serviced and ready for the trip.
– Drones are also popular. We have so far delivered 700 drones, he says after another of their columns arrived with 200 drones this week.
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Eggum unwrapped a drone. -
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Eggum unwrapped a drone. Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
Photo: Bjørn Haugan / VG
– Incredibly important
He emphasizes that these are surveillance drones, not drones that can attack.
Giæver Eriksen says he is extremely happy that LO’s three leading leaders chose to set aside several days to join the trip.
– It is incredibly important. We greatly appreciate their participation. Ukraine needs all the support it can get, and we hope that LO’s donations and participation inspire others to join the cause.
The trip from Oslo to Lviv, an hour’s drive into Ukraine from Poland, took two days. One through Sweden and ferry from Ystad to Poland. And a day on Polish highways to Ukraine.
