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.

