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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Amy Hawkins, senior China correspondent

‘A little light in the dark’: the former Chinese police officer bringing bubble tea to wartorn Ukraine

Ukraine China Police
Brother Dong at the military cemetery in Lviv
Brother Dong often visits the military cemetery in Lviv to pay tribute to those who fell in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Photograph: Katya Moskalyuk/The Guardian

Are you looking for a way to stay sane in an environment that has been torn apart by war? Then perhaps what you need is a bubble tea.

That is the philosophy guiding Brother Dong, a Chinese-German volunteer in Ukraine. The 52-year-old former officer in China’s People’s Armed Police drives once a month from his home in Frankfurt to collect a haul of tapioca pearls from a warehouse in Berlin. From there he drives across Poland to reach Ukraine.

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