How the outdoor community is supporting Ukraine

As shock waves from Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine ripple around the world, here’s what the outdoor world is doing to help – and how you can too

AT THE TIME OF WRITING, the war in Ukraine has driven around 10 million people from their homes, creating what UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, describes as “the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II”. Millions more are living in cities heavily besieged by Russian troops.

Governments, businesses and individuals across the world have taken action on an unprecedented scale to isolate Russia and support Ukrainian refugees. So how has the outdoor community reacted to the crisis?

Brands in action

On 2 March, less than a week after the war began, the European Outdoor Group (EOG) issued a rallying statement: “As an outdoor industry association, we may not have the ability to influence military actions, but we can mobilise our members and the wider sector to aid the innocent civilians who are being affected by those actions,” it said. “Our industry specialises in the design, manufacture and production of kit that can help people in the harshest conditions, and we can step up now to provide assistance. This is not a marketing opportunity, it’s a call to action.”

Dozens of outdoor brands have responded to the appeal. Keen began working with local distributors in Poland and the Czech Republic shortly after the crisis began, supplying refugees with footwear and other essentials. The Outdoor Industries Association (OIA) has teamed up with the Polish Outdoor Group to gather and distribute donations – it started sending lorries loaded with outdoor equipment to Ukraine in mid-March. Exxel Outdoors, the parent group of Sierra Designs, sent 2500 sleeping bags directly to Ukraine, whilst DMM, Alpkit, Fjällräven and Ellis Brigham have been coordinating donations of second-hand gear.

Some brands – including Keen, Haglöfs,

World Cup events in Russia and excluded Russian athletes from all UIAA-sanctioned events. President Peter Muir said that the organisation: “deplores in the strongest possible terms any and all use of state or individual violence in pursuit of any aim or for the purpose of the settlement of perceived or actual disputes such as the current Russian actions against Ukraine.”

Ukrainian mountaineer Irina Galay has also called on the international mountaineering community to ban

Russians from climbing the world’s highest mountains. The first Ukrainian woman to summit both Everest and K2, Galay enlisted in the territorial defence forces shortly after the Russian invasion. “I hope Russians won’t be permitted to approach any single mountain this year,” she said, in an interview with Outside. “I hope they won’t be allowed to raise the flag of their country on any mountain in the world.”

Galay and her partner Yuri have launched a social media campaign page called

‘No Peace, No Climb’. On it, she argues that Russians should be banned from international climbing expeditions for as long as the invasion of Ukraine continues. “If you are a Russian citizen not agreeing with this war then cancel your expedition and find a way to help or protest,” she adds. “Hoping, ignoring, or being silent is not the way to stop this war; now is the time to make the choice.”

But Russian mountaineers and climbers are already flocking to the anti-war movement. Thousands have signed an open letter calling for an end to military action in Ukraine. The letter dubs the act of invasion “a crime” and acknowledges that Ukrainians are “our friends, side by side with whom we have passed the most terrible trials and shared difficulties in the mountains.” Signatories take a major risk – they face a potential 20-year jail sentence for speaking out. “We understand that our letter will not change Putin’s mind,” said one of the promoters, “but at least we want people in other countries to know that we are against this war.”

Solidarity across borders

Other Russian mountaineers have gone further. In March, Russian mountain guide Vladimir Kotlyar was forced to move to Kathmandu after unfurling a banner reading ‘STOP WAR IN UKRAINE’ on Kilimanjaro. Such acts of solidarity call into question the morality of punishing Russian mountaineers and climbers for the actions of their leader. As the humanitarian crisis grows, international ties of friendships forged in the mountains have never been more important.

One Ukrainian demonstrating the important of those friendships is Slovakiabased Illya Bakhmet-Smolensky. Seventeenyear-old Bakhmet-Smolensky, who became the youngest person in the world to climb a 9a in 2018, has been using his ties in the climbing community to connect refugees with hosts. “Many European climbers know me and have already texted to me about providing help with housing,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “Since I’m currently at home in complete safety, I’m ready to match you with the locals! Therefore, if there’s anyone in need – please text me!”

Even within Ukraine, outdoors and mountain communities have rallied to support refugees fleeing bombarded cities. Guide Oleg Ivanchenko is amongst those offering his help – he’s turned the basement of his alpine club in Odessa into a shelter.

And the Ukrainian mountains themselves are offering sanctuary to those displaced by the bombing. The Carpathians, which once sheltered Jews fleeing pogroms and victims of Stalin’s Red Army, are now witnessing an influx of refugees from Kyiv and elsewhere. Whilst the mountains can offer them temporary protection, however, they still face the same question as millions of other Ukrainian refugees dispersed across Europe: when can they return home?