Baker from Poznań went to Bucha, Kiev to make bread for soldiers and locals

He made the decision to go to Bucha on impulse. It's hard to remain indifferent after seeing photos of the horrific massacre of the small Kiev area town. "I figured that we should help in a concrete way, that we should act. I typed "Bucha bakery" in the browser, I contacted the bakery of my choosing, and 15 minutes later I got a reply: come over," says Jacek Polewski, the owner of "Czarny chleb" bakery in Poznań.

A week ago, together with his son and a friend, Jacek went to Bucha. They took 500 kilograms of rye flour with them, in order to bake bread for soldiers and civilians. How did the mission go? The bakery owner told TVN24 reporter about the mission.

According to Jacek Polewski, life in western Ukraine basically goes as usual. The cruelty of war is not really that visible there. The closer to Kiev, however, the more destruction all around. "The most striking thing we saw in Bucha were straw dogs roaming the empty streets and the silence. There was no life," he says.

The bakery the Polish bakers helped was used as some sort of military base by the Russians. "Russian soldiers used the oven, made food and sat there. They left an awful mess. We spent the first two days there on cleaning. We were a bit worried that the Russians had left some mines, for instance under the paper, a pallet, or maybe a mattress, and that one of us would simply die. Luckily, none of that happened," Polewski says.

After the grand cleaning, they were finally able to turn on the oven and start to bake bread. "This bakery in Bucha is very artisan. The bread is mainly make sourdough bread, everything is handmade, and wood is used to heat the oven. Everything worked smoothly, although we didn't bake many loafs - around 80 in two days," he adds.

Fresh baked bread were distributed among the local residents who gather in front of one of the buildings. "At first they would say they didn't want any because they had their own, but when they tried warm bread that smells like home, they took it in their hands and started to eat just like that without anything. Bread is a symbol of safety, peace, wealth, abundance, and I guess this smell would enchant anyone," Polewski says.

The team are now in Kiev and bake bread there. So far, the bakers from Poznań have met with positive reception from the Ukrainians everywhere they went. "When people find out we are from Poland, they propose soup, tea, and of course vodka," Polewski added.