On August 8, 2018 nine Ukrainian cyclists from the cycling tour “Chumak Way” entered Hamilton after being received by a crowd of well-wishers in Toronto the previous evening. The cyclists for peace as they are referred to were greeted by the Ukrainian community at the hall of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church. During their stop the group shared the reasons behind their cross-continent tour and had the opportunity to answer questions from the crowd.
The “Chumak Way” is an organized 10,000 km North American cycling tour which began in Los Angeles on May 22, 2018. It crossed into Canada from Washington State on June 13. Some of the feature Canadian stops include Vancouver, Kelowna, Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, London, Toronto, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. The tour criss-crosses the border between the US and Canada several times and will also include stops in Ottawa and Montreal before its completion in Washington D.C. at the end of August 2018.
During their stop in Hamilton, the cycling group informed the crowd that they have already completed about 8,000 km of their trip and cycle an average of 150 km daily. The longest distance cycled was between Brandon and Winnipeg in Manitoba.
When asked why they organized this tour of North America, the tour organizer, Kostyantyn Samchuk, explained that they wanted the world to know more about Ukraine. Samchuk said that “Ukraine is the largest territory in Europe and no one knows about its culture or its long history. Therefore, we want people to have a more positive view of Ukraine rather than that its corruption or Chernobyl.” He also stated that the wish was also to unite all Ukrainians, no matter where they live, because “if we are united, we are stronger and we can stand up and fight for Ukrainian independence.”
Samchuk pointed out that various misunderstandings about Ukraine were clearly seen in the group’s tour of Europe in 2016. The tour “Ukrainians in Europe” was another 10,000 km cycle ride that began on May 15, 2016 and went through 16 European countries. They began their European adventure by crossing the state boarder between Ukraine and Poland and returned through Moldova ending their tour in Odessa. They traveled north through Germany, east through Portugal and Spain, south through Italy and east through Croatia and Romania. That cycle tour supported the soldiers fighting the war in Ukraine, drew attention to the problems of rehabilitating veterans and tried to improve the image of Ukrainians in Europe.
This North American tour is a fundraising initiative with specific objectives. Firstly, the group wants to raise funds to support Artem Kirilyuk, the orphaned son of the ATO hero, Oleksandr Kirilyuk. Currently, Artem is living with his elderly great-grandparents whom are trying their best to support the child. The other aim is to financially assist a family of refugees who were forced to flee with their nine children from the war impacted town of Perevalsk in the Luhansk oblast.
None of the participants of the “Chumak Way” are professional cyclists. They began this cycling initiative because they loved to ride their bicycles and wanted to spread awareness about Ukraine. Nevertheless, every member of this team has their own unique role: Serhii Kotyk is the video director, Valerii Horbatov is responsible for corporate sponsorships and sponsor outreach, Olha Akhmedova who is the only female of the “Chumak Way” is the group’s photographer.
The main objective of all the tour’s participants is that people understand that the war in Ukraine is not a civil war. The “Chumak Way” participants Kostyantyn Samchuk and Serhii Konoval are both veterans of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They took part in the initial armed struggle in 2014-2015, Samchuk in the Luhansk oblast and Konoval as a medic in the Donetsk region. While both admit that the war has had a profound impact on them, they are very vocal as to the reasons why the war began and what is currently happening in eastern Ukraine.
The participants of the tour all said that they are greatly honoured and very humbled when they are received by the Ukrainian diaspora throughout North America. They have travelled through hot and sunny, as well as cold and windy days but they are excited to visit every stop along the way and meet with the local community.
To follow their tour and see their progress, please visit their website: http://proidysvit.org/en/
