BACK IN THE
WAR-ZONE!
JANUARY 2023.
After 3 months away, I am finally back in Kharkiv, war zone Ukraine! This is the story of a monumental effort by a huge group of people, to buy a minibus for the Turbota charity for babies and children, fill it with urgent aid and get it to Kharkiv in the middle of winter!
Now, it also the legacy of our dear and cherished friend, Vi Mcgrath in Grosmont, who we very sadly lost suddenly. Vi was Church warden and passionate supporter of the fundraising in the 'Cafe for Ukraine', being an instrumental and essential part of the success of the mission. It is no overstatement to say it would not have been possible without her. Thank you Vi!
When I came back from Ukraine last time, I had three months to wait before I could legally return. Sit and twiddle thumbs? No! I spoke with Turbota and asked them what I could do? They said they urgently needed a minibus, as theirs was in poor condition and unable to run properly. So, it became the mission, to buy a long wheel base, Renault Trafic minibus and out of that, 'Cafe for Ukraine' was born!
It became very popular, very quickly, with local people and hikers and visitors alike. There are so many people to thank for their contributions and they know who they are, but our great friend Liz Druce is a stand out supporter. Liz tirelessly made cakes and soup at cost, delivered them and through her Gingerbread Cottage business made a huge success of the sell-out Ukrainian Christmas party night, making over £800! Even today, Liz is continuing working for the cause, the cafe will open again and she is still gathering donations. Thank you Liz!! The Ukrainian apple cake is now legendary in these parts!
Along with the turbota.world website, we did get the money for the minibus, in very difficult fundraising circumstances. After days of endlessly trawling the internet for a suitable candidate, I eventually found one in Burnley and was able to get there and buy it. It was perfect for Turbota requirements and the garage was very helpful and even donated £200 to the fund!
I later added the aid signs and a lot of Union flags, important to show support for our friends in Ukraine!
Before heading off, I took it to Renault Universal garage in Whitby, where Ivor Greer took it under his wing and very kindly sorted everything out and did it at cost, providing many spare parts and other items. Because it is nearly impossible to get parts quickly in the war zone, I took as many as I could, including shock absorbers, break discs and pads, bulbs, fuses, two spare wheels, as well as fitting all six with winter tyres. All in all, it cost £1600, but essential. Thank you Ivor!
The other part of the mission, was to get enough donated aid to fill it. We set up donation centres in Grosmont, Egton and Pickering, thanks to our dedicated supporters and got over a tonne of urgent aid! It included baby food, baby supplies, wipes nappies, winter clothes, blankets, medical supplies, batteries, gas stoves and 150 gas bottles and a lot more...It was an incredible effort, thank you to everyone who donated items and money, it was heartwarming generosity, from the local and Yorkshire community. Other significant donations came from North Devon and as far away as the USA and Australia!
So, after everything was finished, there was enough money for all the travel costs to Kharkiv and to buy extra supplies to fill up the minibus. It was right on the weight limit. Our total fundraising came to £16,000, pretty good for a little Yorkshire village!! Along the way, Turbota had a nightmare scenario in their hub. A major water pipe fractured in the room above and flooded their basement. It destroyed months of essential baby supplies.
Fortunately, because we aleady had funds raised, we were able to send them £2000 in immediate assistance. With this money, they were able to express order replacement items from other parts of Ukraine, including £480 medicine, £430 baby food, £335 winter baby clothes and £540 for a generator. At this time, they were also suffering regular missile attacks and were without electricity for several days a week. This was donated money, working almost instantly where it was most needed. They had very little disruption to their charity supplies, thanks to our donors!
Fortunately, we had enough money raised to fund the rest of the mission and planning for the trip began. It was a last minute thing, because of the ever-changing situation in Ukraine. The weather there has been unseasonably warm, the warmest in 140 years - a blessing for all under the circumstances! As part of the trip, I arranged to take several other boxes of items and deliver them to Trostyanets on the way to Kharkiv. The trip would be 2,400 miles.
First leg down to Folkestone, then Eurotunnel to Calais. A relatively straightforward route to Belgium, across southern Germany into Poland and then down to Hrebenne on the Ukrainian border. Because I am a lone driver, there are rest and sleep considerations, so the whole trip took me 5 days. I encountered a lot of snow and blizzard conditions in Belgium, which made it very slow and hazzardous. But eventually, I arrived and the crossing was surprisingly quick and easy and I was in!
For the most part, the roads are quite good all the way to Kyiv and there is little sign of the war in the west of the country. There are no street lights at night though, so it is particularly difficult, especially on 'the other side of the road'. I also had to make Kyiv before the curfew at 11pm, but I did and a much needed rest. The minibus was running perfectly and at a steady pace was getting 500 miles to a full tank of fuel. I had a few hours in Kyiv the next morning, a city I know very well now.
After you leave Kyiv, you start to see signs of the war. The road to Trostyanets is more 'B' road and in some places was incredibly bad. Added to which, in anticipation of invasion, the military had blown all the bridges up, meaning countless slow and difficult diversions.
The further east you get, the more you see of the war. I had chance to look around Trostyanets, which was clearly once a beautiful leafy town, surrounded by forests. Now it is heavily mined and the senseless destruction is truly mind numbing. I spoke with locals, who recounted how Russian tanks rolled into the town during the first days of the occupation, unhindered and sat in the square, slowly rotating the gun turret and systematically blowing everything up.
This was a childrens toy store. Now it is rubble. This is what it looks like when a 50 tonne Russian tank drives down the footpath.
Most of the horror of that has happened in Ukraine still goes unreported. People are still trying to rebuild their lives, but live in constant fear, being so close to the Russian border. Now, they are facing the prospect of a repeat invasion. I don't know why, there is very little left to destroy.
Even this Soviet-era Russian tank memorial did not escape unscathed. It doesn't make sense.
At this time of year, you would expect it to be -20 or colder, but it has been unseasonably warm and is hovering around -9. By Ukrainian standards, it is not cold, but cold enough to still freeze the lake and walk across it! Since I have been here, it is getting even warmer and will be above freezing this week. By humanitarian standards, it is a huge blessing and will save a lot of distress and suffering.
As with thousands of other towns and villages in the east of the country, it will take decades and lifetimes to rebuild and recover, until then we can still support everyday Ukrainians in whatever way we can. And so, leaving Trostyanets, it's down to Kharkiv and through the countless checkpoints and questions. It is a source of great surprise when a British minibus turns up in the middle of nowhere, but also a source of deep gratitude from the many Police Officers and soldiers I spoke to in my 'best' Ukrainian! There was many a smile and a lot of broken English!
"Peramoha"! Or in English, "Victory"! The big day arrives and after three months and a lot of hard work, I finally hand over the minibus and all the aid in perfect condition. It is a huge relief to finally make it and without issue, but tinged with sadness when I hand over the keys. Before I left Yorkshire, I put 'Vi' on the back of the minibus and I am so happy that we made it here together. Thank you Vi!
Within hours, our aid is unloaded and sorted and within days a lot of it is already going out to those who need it. It is a significant contribution to their supplies and included nearly 400 items of baby food. Turbota is a hub, so it has a constant enquiries for supplies.Our medical supplies were collected soon after we arrived, being very much in demand.
In another part of the building, there is a military department, where they make all kinds of things, mostly for the welfare of soldiers on the front line. This though, is something different! A winter snow sniper suit! As amusing as it looks, it is a deadly serious piece of military clothing! It is very difficult to get in and out of and very hot when you are in it, perfect for lying in a snowy field for a long time, I think!
In another room, home-made paraffin burners are made for the front line. Eco burners, made from re-cycled cans and cardboard, with a small amount of fuel. I mentioned these before and so I did a few days making these again and boxing them ready for delivery. In every box, I put a message with a Union flag sticker - "we stand with you, for victory"!
Now more than ever in sub-zero temperatures, these little burners are essential for hot food and drinks and are surprisingly efficient and long lasting. So far, I think I have done nearly 3,000 of these!
So, mission accomplished and things easier now? No! This is the war zone, no time to rest! I volunteered to take the minibus to Bakhmut on the front lines, with another van, to provide urgent supplies. There is serious fighting there and is far more dangerous than anything I have done before! We have an early start to make the most of the daylight, it is a 300 mile round-trip and will take a long time with the poor roads, bad weather and numerous checkpoints.
Of course, all the bridges have been blown up again, especially on the main routes in the area. The road goes to Izium first, where I have been before and then down to Kramatorsk. We travel through towns with beautiful scenes and rich history.
These are areas of recent severe fighting, but now repatriated. The road is littered with burnt out Russian military vehicles, too many to count and now at the mercy of the winter snow. It's a surreal contrasting landscape, very bleak and abandoned.
Eventually we reach the Oblast border of the Donbas. From here, it is a veritable hell-hole of war, where it has not stopped since day 1.
There are huge amounts of weapons up and down the road, trucks and jeeps full of battle hardened soldiers, some looking weary from the ravages of this war. Every town and village we go through is completely destroyed, homes mostly. Apartment blocks, sliced in half by missiles. They are everywhere.
Civilian vehicles, cars, buses, farm trucks, crushed by tanks or overturned by the side of the road, hundreds of them.
Every so often, there are compounds full of burnt-out Russian military vehicles rusting away.
Then eventually, after 5 hours we arrive at at an arranged location to drop of the aid. They are often scattered here and there in numbers, so there is less risk of complete loss of everything in an attack.
We did three different drops of bedding, hygiene, medical and food and then we are away. It has been uneventful, but it is not always like this. It has been relatively calm for a while, but there is a battle coming. It will probably decide the outcome of this war. Defeat is not an option, we have to keep supporting our Ukrainian friends in whatever way we can, to endure this evil.
For the first week back in Kharkiv, it was very quiet. It's always worrying when that happens, because you know it is coming sooner or later. Just when you think you can relax a bit, they come again and so they did. Yesterday, a number of missiles hit the city centre, one in particular hit an occupied apartment block with fatalities. They want to remind us not to get comfortable. As the first year of the war comes to a close, Ukraine is still strong, its people resilient and determined. But they cannot do it alone. We have to keep standing with them, don't let the world forget! For all the good and decent people in the world, this is a war that must be won by civilised mankind and consigned to history for the last time.
Cats are a popular part of Ukrainian culture, you see them everywhere, especially in art. These four wall art pictures are in Kharkiv.
"BE GOOD"
Thank you to everybody who contributed in any way, large or small. The success of this fundraising mission was down to a huge team of people and for the benefit of those in need. It is the best of mankind, in the face of the worst of it. Thank you.
See the thank you from Turbota at the foot of the page.
"SLAVA UKRAINI"
