16 | MARCH 10 • 2022
A
Pontiac business owner, originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine, is
desperately trying to help his employees stuck in Ukraine.
Vladimir Gendelman, 47, whose business Company
Folders, Inc. has workers in his home country, is consulting with mil-
itary personnel on the best ways to help them stay safe.
They talked about “general terms of what happens during a war,”
Gendeman explains. “What are the strategically good places to be and
strategically not good places to be?”
One employee in Lviv, Gendelman says, was able to cross the bor-
der into Poland, thanks to the city’s close proximity to Ukraine’s west-
ern border. This was on the morning before Ukraine’s martial law was
enacted, which prevents men ages 18-60 from leaving the country.
Another employee in Dnepropetrovsk, Gendelman continues, was
in a bad area strategically. His home was surrounded by three bridges,
which makes it a key target for the Russian army.
“I pulled up his address on Google Maps, and I realized that he
was between two bridges and very close to a middle bridge which
has railroads going over it,” Gendelman says. “This makes it the most
dangerous area.”
Gendelman advised his employee to try to get out of
Dnepropetrovsk as soon as he could, so his employee managed to
escape to take shelter with his sister, who lives in a smaller village.
“There is practically nothing going on there,” Gendelman says of
the village. “It’s quiet, but occasionally he hears shots.”
ON THE COVER
Trapped in
Ukraine
Pontiac business owner
shares stories of employees
trapped in Ukraine.
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
continued on page 18
TOP: Vladimir
Gendelman, owner of
Company Folders Inc,
during a happier time.
Today, he is preoccupied
with helping his employ-
ees trapped in Ukraine.