A thousand euros in one euro coin weighs five and a quarter kilos. They know it, one afternoon in March 2022, at the Ranger military effects store in Madrid’s Ribera de Curtidores. A priest appeared with a bag and 1,600 euros of a collection collected by coins. He came to buy defense material to send to relatives of the Ukrainian community, who are mostly Ukrainians, at the front.
Priest bought camouflage uniforms, boots, and warm military clothing. The clerks didn’t know how to count that much money, so they asked in a Mercadona. There they advised: “Weigh them”. That’s when Álex, one of the organization’s directors, finished verifying the phenomenon that had been occurring for days: combat shirts, multi-pocket trousers, durable and quick-drying boots, tactical gloves, ballistic glasses, magazine pouches. , knee pads, vests, bulletproof… Before the war, items bought only by the military, police and fans of AirSoft games were selling faster and faster.
Today the trickle continues so much that it is scarce in the industry’s stores. bootsand they have finished subzero sleeping bags and some fleece garments made from recycled fiber for the time being unchanged.
The wave of shipments to Ukraine, which does not cease to sell the same shelves in specialized stores in Europe, confirms what was requested by EL PERIÓDICO in Madrid and Barcelona.
minibuses
The phenomenon started a year ago, A week after the Russian tanks entered on the territory of Ukraine. “At first, a few very discreet people appeared, little by little, speaking in low voices with a Russian accent. Some of them were masons who had been in Spain for a long time and who I always thought were Romanian…”, Álex recalls.
They were Ukrainians, not Russians or Romanians. The first mobilization to face an advancing invasion from the eleven entry points of the Ukrainian Regional Defense captured soldiers and volunteers without adequate equipment. It was March. They lacked everything. Winter had yet to show signs of leaving northeastern Europe, and refugees began arriving in Spain with no more resources than those hastily gathered before escaping the missiles. That’s why the first things that go on sale are cheap outerwear, some Thermal blanket for 1.90 euros… until we start asking for sub-zero sleeping bagsThe cost is around 90.
In this war year, the supply of uniforms, boots and protective equipment in Ukraine increased significantly, with donations from the governments of Western countries. In fact, one of the Department of Defense’s first military aid shipments included an Air Force Airbus A400M at its core. Two pallets with 5,000 kevlar helmets. But families continue to make shipments a year later because the war is running out of supplies.
Every Thursday and Friday, minibuses depart from various points in Madrid with packages specially sent by relatives to Ukraine. It should be this way, because ordering from Kiev or Lviv via Amazon will not work: no courier pickup trucks will enter the country.
When defense supplies began to become scarce in Spain—and in France, the United Kingdom, and Italy—refugee relatives used the Amazon or other tele-shopping systems. Pick up in Turkey and Greece, bring to the West and ship from here in utility vans on their way to the battlefield.
collect 600 euros
Buying a Kevlar helmet is not possible if it is not in an arsenal and limitations. But even now you can do it in militaria stores.Get some of the things that turn out to be more urgent: bulletproof vests. However, it is more difficult to obtain grade 4 ceramic plates to fill.
A refugee family in Madrid or Barcelona with a father, a son, a nephew mobilized by the Ukrainian army, provide him with the material he will miss When I reached the Donbas trenches.
Plateless vest 145 euro, a pair of tactical boots 190 euro, green and dark yellow Multicam jersey reproducing the color of the Ukrainian plains 109 euro, knee pad 15 euro, elbow pad 11.9, 35.95 M- PACT gloves, 15.50 magazine pouch, 79 ,90 ballistic glass…
David, another Ranger employee, says all this without counting the thermal blankets, socks, T-shirts and sleeping bags that “are the first things to wear out and need to be returned.”
Boots from the German company Lowa are the scariest in all stores, among other reasons, as the company itself has changed its direction. a significant part of its production Ukrainian. During that war year, the most common sizes of that boat’s Zephyr GTX had a six-month waiting list.
Inside Madrid’s Morgan Moreone of the shops consulted shows another product that cannot be changed as before the war: Miltec backpacksalso German, with various camouflage, the price is about 50 euros.
Also first aid kits
Soldiers of one of the detachments deployed in the forests of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense sent photos to the Ranger store, wearing supplies sent by refugee relatives in Madrid. Now, a year later, they sent a signed Ukrainian flag hanging from the ceiling there as a gift.
“We had hundreds of people here, and many Spaniards wanted to help,” says one of those in charge of trade, shortly after the bombing of cities in Ukraine began. Collaborate for example, send us ifacks. This is what they call slang lightweight first aid kits that can be carried attached to a backpack.
For the most part, these are all material It is imported by Madrid, Álava and Catalan companies. comes from china. In the middle of last year, as the war raged in Ukraine, supply chains were broken and the famine was exacerbated as refugee families received calls to their workplaces across the country. “Here too, of course,” says one attendant. Gi-JOE Barcelona. The Ronda de Sant Antoni store is one of the most prominent stores in the sale of “waste material”, the surplus obtained from the armies.
“Suddenly this stuff has had brutal logistics,” they explain, but they prefer not to say what’s currently understaffed in the Barcelona store, because “the best we can do to help is not talk about it any more. You know what I mean”.