Emad Ballack, an Iraqi-American Kurd and businessman, who owns a restaurant in Kyiv, provides his passport at the airport check, as he plans to return to Ukraine to support Ukrainian soldiers against the Russian invasion, in Erbil, Iraq March 4 2022. Picture: REUTERS/AZAD LASHKARI
As civilians started to pour out of the country, Ballack, who is an ethnic Kurd, began a four-day trip to Kyiv, a city he has called home for the last eight years.During his journey by plane and train, the 45-year-old started to think about how he could use his businesses, including restaurants and an e-commerce company, to help Ukrainians under fire.
After a childhood in Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war, Ballack and his family fled to the Netherlands. He later settled in the US before coming back to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2012.