As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, we’re reminded that Tindie is an international community, and several of our sellers are based where fighting is heaviest. One of these sellers is Ultimate Robotics, and they shared their experience of the crisis with everyone on Hackaday.io.
Ultimate Robotics, a small team of four that manufactures the uEGC, a small, Open Source, low-power ECG, is based in Kyiv, Ukraine. They shared their story about the Russian invasion which began with explosions early in the morning.
The Ultimate Robotics team at first decided the best course of action would be to evacuate to Lviv, more than 450km away from Kyiv in western Ukraine. They packed up their entire shop, including reels of components and a 3D printer. After a harrowing train ride and two days of volunteering in Lviv, the Ultimate Robotics team decided the fight was in Kyiv and headed back during the night.
In line with our parent company Siemens, Tindie has stopped new business in Russia as of last week, and Belarus as of this week. Stores in these countries have been put on hold, and Tindie is unable to take orders to these destinations.
Tindie features sellers worldwide, and Ultimate Robotics is not the only Tindie seller in Ukraine. TeHyBug, AG RF Engineering & Consulting, Security Arts, iotdevices, smartlight.me, and others are all based in Ukraine and we hope for the safety of them and their communities. We have also heard from sellers in Russia who don’t support the invasion and will face hardships from the sanctions imposed.
If you would like to help, some of our Ukrainian sellers suggest a local non-profit, a donation to support Ukraine’s citizens severely affected by the war, or one of several other ways those of us outside Ukraine can help.
