It's not the big bucks that come together on Castroper Strasse, just outside the Ruhr Stadium, when VfL Bochum play there.

But even the small amounts add up.

Recently there were 1880 euros in the collector's cup.

The newly founded initiative "Ukraine Support Bochum" emerged from the football club's fan scene, and the catchy logo with the interlocking hands and the winding tower, symbol of the German Mining Museum, comes from supporters who are networked with clubs from other countries, This is also the case with the club Schachtjor Donezk in Bochum's twin town.

Roman Zheleznyak, operator of the art space “mental space” in Bochum, keeps the wire to the war zone, the “dedicated line”, as he calls it.

The curator and gallery owner, who studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, knows the fans of graffiti activities in the city. He calls his exhibition program "contemporary and courageous" because it tends to be difficult to sell.

In the past few days and until further notice, the native of Ukraine, born in 1985, has dedicated himself to other tasks anyway.

From Bochum, the father of two children, together with his wife, the philologist Tetiana Zheleznyak, and almost 20 other comrades-in-arms want to support his compatriots as best they can.

The first thing to do was to create an account, which received several thousand euros after a few days.

There are only small amounts up to 50 euros per person, "if necessary several times".

Zheleznyak makes no secret of a certain skepticism towards recipients of monetary donations in his home country whom he does not know himself.

For this reason, they help above all artists and architects from Kyiv and other cities, whom one can trust from personal experience - because one simply wants to be sure where the donations actually end up.

"Ukraine Support Bochum" is looking for bulletproof vests

One of Zheleznyak's most important tasks is making lists of goods that need to be constantly updated: for example, for possible accommodation for refugees in Bochum, where he has lived since 1999.

Before that, he and his parents had come to the Ruhr area via the Unna-Massen reception camp.

There are already many portals for living space on the Internet, but he wants to offer it as much as possible from personal acquaintances, students, shared apartments: "If a mother comes with a three-year-old child, I look at my list and can put her in a family with a child." In this way, people can be specifically helped to “take a deep breath” after fleeing.

But the lists also include things that “could actually save lives”: radios, SD cards and laptops, drones, military boots, gauze bandages and first-aid kits from cars, which in this country would have to be replaced with new ones every two years anyway.

"Ukraine Support Bochum" is also trying to get bulletproof protective vests, they now cost up to 600 euros: "Only a few organizations collect them," says Zheleznyak, "and that's exactly what's missing." The war could last a long time.

For the transport he gets the phone number of a middleman in Poland to whom he can send the goods: “I have to confirm a code and tell him who gave me the number.

Then they make sure that things are picked up from the Polish border and get to the people they are intended for.”

Wouldn't surrender be the most life-saving measure?

"Yes, but that doesn't correspond to the spirit of the people at all, if you can still use this word at all, it doesn't fit our mentality and it won't happen, even if Selensky would decide that."

There are already large numbers of partisans, "and there will be no rest".

So be Ukraine.

“We want to restore our sovereignty.

Parts of the Ukraine were always occupied, writers were not allowed to publish in their language." This was the case even before the Soviet government.

The man with the charming accent calls Russian and Ukrainian “my mother tongues”.

He still speaks Russian with his parents;

For a long time, Ukrainian was only spoken in rural areas.

He can only complain that the Russian television channels Sputnik and RT were only banned so late in this country.

Many people would have consumed the propaganda and thus “subjected to this brainwash”.

The Bochum gallery owner is impressed by the statements of spontaneous help.

He was not even aware "that so many people in Germany stick to my homeland and immediately got in touch".

Even exhibition spaces in the region have agreed to cancel current exhibitions to give families a place to stay, "that's unbelievable".

He has “no NGO experience whatsoever,” he says.

But there is no shortage of ideas.

In a Bochum restaurant, he and his wife cook Ukrainian dishes.

With all of this, he had to meditate every day "so as not to dissolve in this situation."

He sees pictures of twenty-year-old skaters preparing Molotov cocktails.

"I can't leave her alone."