Supersprox

Letter from Ukraine
By DJ Maughfling
Photos: Albert Garcia

Writing on April 2nd, Supersprox' Director General DJ Maughfling has written this update on how the war with Russia continues to affect business operations and, above all, the people who work for Supersprox at its Ukraine factory, some 150 km west of the capital Kyiv …

It has been 35 days from the start of the war in Ukraine. It feels, for me, that the war has been going on forever. We have faced more difficulties in these few days than we faced in the past 10 years.
Things that are not even 'things' now become huge issues. We face the possibility of death almost every day, from missiles and dropped bombs. There have been some moments when I was scared in a way that I have never known before. Everyone here is finding it difficult and we are all touched by the waste and destruction in the country.

Supersprox' Director General DJ Maughfling

Sergiy removing scraps, with Valeriy behind

However, there is a strange phenomenon that occurs during these testing times. I did not recognise it until I faced the fear of imminent death. There can be a change in one's state of mind. People are able to move their borders of fear in order to cope with continuous stress. This state of mind has helped me and will help the people of Ukraine to pass through this war and recover.
On the day that the war broke out, I was in Slovakia. It was a shock and hard to process what was happening in the place I had just left. Although I knew from that first day that I needed to come back to Ukraine and support our staff, I was not able to process the reasoning in my mind.
 

'a change in one's state of mind'

 

That day, I drove with my wife and our small dog back to the border between Slovakia and Ukraine. A border that we had only crossed the day before. I have to admit that my wife was not at all happy about my plan to return to Zhytomyr. It was understandable! She told me that she didn't want to return, but she was not going to stay in Europe without me.
At the border, we were the only car heading into Ukraine. Facing us were thousands of women and children, trying to leave for what they hoped was the safety of western Europe. The Ukraine border guard went to hand us back our passports and then stopped himself. He looked at us for a moment and said: “Are you sure that you want to go back? There shooting in Zhytomyr.” It was terrifying to hear. 

At that very moment my heart felt as if it would jump from my chest. I wasn't even sure anymore whether I was doing something helpful or completely stupid. I didn't say anything to the guard, just took the passports and returned to our car.
In the car, the silence was deafening. It might have taken an hour to pass through the crowds of people and abandoned cars at the border. Finally on the road, we started driving towards the Carpathian Mountains. There are two roads going to Zhytomyr. The northern route is faster. However, we decided to go on a southern road. We had heard that Russian forces were coming down from Belarus and we didn't want to encounter them on the way back.
As we drove on and on, all the traffic was facing us, and it made us fearful of what we were heading into.
 

'night-time missile attacks on Zhytomyr'

 

The first days back in Zhytomyr were the hardest. Russians were making advances and we heard reports about the human tragedy in regions around Kyiv - where relatives of our staff were living and desperately trying to escape - and the night-time missile attacks on Zhytomyr were keeping our staff in a constant state of fear.
People were spending half the night in bomb shelters, due to explosions. Then trying to function during the day. It is tough on the mind. But here is where the strange thing starts to happen. Every day that we didn't die made us a little less fearful. When in Ukraine, I live on the 10th floor of an apartment building, and have slept in my own bed every night.
I decided from the start that I would not go to the shelters - I would not be able to manage our team effectively if I was half exhausted. After the helpless and hopeless feeling on the first days, we have reached many small victories in the company.

Our first 'win' was to make an export of produced parts on the 11th of March. That seemed impossible in the beginning, but we were terrifically fortunate. Possibly our staff were motivated by my return. They felt that it could be ok if 'DJ' had returned. Several people have said that it motivated them. To be honest, I didn't know anything, but we are all hanging on to those hopeful messages and signs.
At the start, there were no factories operating in the city, apart from ours. The trucking companies all closed down and the customs office wasn't working. We had a huge task finding a truck to move the sprockets. No one wanted to drive to our city. We did find a truck 150 km west, where the owner said that he would take our goods, if we could get them to him. Our managers searched and pleaded to find someone willing to move the shipment to that first truck.
 

'our team are more motivated than ever before'

 

I drove behind the delivery and watched those crates get loaded from one truck to the other. As they headed off for the Polish border, it felt like the greatest victory ever. But it was necessary to come back to earth and face the next challenge.
As I'm writing this, we have a container of critical aluminium sitting at Odessa port, 70 km from the eastern front line, with another container having been offloaded in Turkey, and we needed to find that. A new robot for our production (fully paid) is located in Sumy, east of Kyiv, and some 40 km from the Russian border.
Our sub-contract partner for heat treatment is also in Sumy. Our steel supplier is in Mariupol, and several more of our sub-contractors are in the industrial east. Plus, we had some tooling lost in the fighting at a Kyiv airport warehouse. In all, we have close to € 500,000 locked up and scattered all over Ukraine. But it's not important to us if we are safe. We can recover.
Despite these challenges, we have been able to make a second export shipment on 1st April, with more than 15 tons of sprockets going over the border to our warehouse in Poland. We have connected with many alternative suppliers for the lost material and services. Our team are more motivated than ever before, to prove that we are good enough and that we can't be stopped so easily - we have the belief.
Finally, I want to say that I do understand a little about the nature of the people attacking Ukraine. They don't respect diplomacy or negotiation. In the East, kindness is often seen as weakness. By showing strength, we send a clear message that we will never be defeated.
It is possible to repel the aggressor. We don't know what is going to be in front of us, but the united front of political parties and the determination to stand up to bullies is essential at this time.
We are extremely grateful for the international assistance to this point. Without the help from other nations, Russian forces would already be facing directly to the European community at the border. That would bring far higher danger for all in the West.