4 VICTORY IN UKRAINE!
A mural on a wall in Izium.
So, here I am again, on my 4th visit to Ukraine! It is over a year since I did my first visit with an aid van and now, two vehicles, 8 months of volunteer work and £30,000 in total donations later, I think we are at the defining moment of the war. Thank you again, from myself, the Turbota family and all the people of Ukraine for the incredible support, personal effort and kind and generous donations in all my fundraising. I drove the Renault Clio Estate with over 400 medical, baby food and other items, with a value over £1200 to the Turbota hub in Kharkiv, another epic journey of 2,100 mile from Yorkshire.
The Clio now works with our donated minibus, a small fleet presence in the war-zone! Together, they fly the flag for Britain and continue to show our Ukrainian friends that they are not alone in this war. The morale aspect of everything we do is still very big and very important here. The dynamic has changed in recent months though and with the war now into it's second year, 'war weariness' has definitely set in, here in Ukraine and around the world. Donations everywhere have dropped drastically, so showing support in this way lifts the spirits of all those we are trying to help.
On the long trip over here, I stopped in Berlin to see a Ukrainian friend, Nastya, who was evacuated from Mariupol. She is now a translator working for NATO. She showed me the city and the extensive support that there is for Ukraine there. In geographical terms, it is only a stones-throw from the Ukraine border, but the signs of support are impressive and widespread.
Ukrainians Nastya, Anton and Katerina at the Brandenburg gate.
Ukrainian musicians performing traditional and meaningful music.
The Berlin Gallery presents some poignant and thought-provoking Ukrainian art from native artists. There is a lot more visual support here, than I have seen anywhere else on my travels, but there is also a very sizeable Ukrainian population here, on account of the easy travelling from the border. And so with a new city under my belt, I head-off again for the long drive across Poland. On my last visit, I chanced upon a crossing that was easier, always a blessing, considering some places have queues of many hours. Hrebenne is north of Lviv and as before, it was only a few hours of processing.
And with no issues, I have my documentation and I am back in Ukraine! It was strangely comforting to the sign again!
On my previous visits, I did what needed to be done and that was all. This time however, I wanted to see a little bit of the country and chanced upon this little town on the road from Lviv to Kyiv. So I took the opportunity to stop and look at a few different things along the way. Ukraine has a rich history and many beautiful places.
It is a vast country, with outstanding natural beauty and architecture, especially religious. The blue and gold often glints in the sunshine. I hope in the future, that Ukraine will be a very popular destination for visitors and it will help with it's economic recovery. I was very pleased to be able to stand under this huge storks nest and get a birds-eye view! There are many here, down the sides of the main road.
And so with the day advancing and a curfew still in place, I had to make Kyiv before darkness and the comfort of a bed, after another night in the car. There are few lights at night and the road can be difficult, often perfect for many miles and then suddenly just an obstacle course of huge potholes for miles. Not being able to see them and hitting one can be a bone-crunching experience, so night driving is off the agenda. I have been to Kyiv many times and of course lived and worked there in the early days, but there is always something new to find. I especially love the art, wherever it crops up.
He may not be a hero at home, but he is still a hero here! You know when you have made it, when you have food named after you!
The most striking though, are the huge incredible murals on the sides of buildings. Some are staggering in their complexity and beauty!
Of course, I am always on the look-out for other Brits and anyone I can have an easy conversation with in English! So, imagine my surprise when I saw this in the hotel car park!
Complete with Union flag stickers, brought from England by a group of guys from Portsmouth as a donation! They were on their way to Odessa to deliver it to the Ukraine military. Here, it is a nice Landrover, but this is what they did to it. Here it is a war machine!
So, onwards to Kharkiv and another day of driving in heavy rain. A long and often slow journey and of course there are checkpoints when you get there and a lot of questions. Eventually though, I am in the apartment and it feels like home. As well as the donations for Turbota, I brought other boxes from Ukrainians in Yorkshire, to deliver to their families in the region, a rare opportunity for them to do that. They are done first, then Turbota donations are delivered, including a lot of Yorkshire Tea! We cannot forget, that they too need help with everyday items. They are all volunteers and do not have access to the same kind of welfare system that we do and many have not worked since the war started. Of course, as always, they are delighted with everything we bring and thank everybody.
The next morning, a moment I have been waiting for! Both our vehicles together in the war-zone! It has been a lot of hard work for a lot of people and of course we lost our dear friend Vi along the way. But a moment to feel a sense of achievement and know that all the hard work was worth it. The minibus is a workhorse, delivering and collecting here, there and everywhere. It did not take long before I was doing my first aid delivery!
Turbota has become the biggest independent aid charity in the war-zone. It has come a long way since I started with them eight months ago. But is has a problem; it may have become a victim of it's own success! It is receiving over 1,000 requests for baby food and aid every month, but it can only provide for 300. The huge drop-off in donations has left it scrambling for supplies. I was shocked at how quickly everything had gone.The baby food I brought was gone the next day. Last time I was here just six weeks ago, all the shelves were packed with food, thousands of items. Now, just a few hundred.
It has become a fact of life here, that the longer the war goes on, the more difficult and stretched everybody will be. Everybody! The best we can hope for and try for, is to keep the charities, the people and the military going for long enough to reach a satisfactory conclusion. I hope it is soon. I get the sense that Ukraine is starting to get weary and that there is not the same dynamic energy there was before. 418 days in, the stress and effort is taking it's toll and I think they know that. It is unsustainable for both sides. I also get the feeling that the next action will be decisive and that Ukraine will go 'all in' to get a strong upper-hand or at worst be in a position for a more acceptable compromise. A spring offensive is almost certainly off the cards, they are not ready. I do not think the war will continue much past the summer, something is going to give.
So, in the temporary absence of aid supplies and deliveries, we have turned our attention to non-lethal military help. Here, I am making huge camouflage webbing for the new tanks that are arriving. Although it may look random, it is a very precise operation of colours and spacing. It is incredibly effective, even at 10 metres away. The process of weaving it, whether you go right or left, up or down, under, over and across or the other way is permanently etched in my brain! The first few days are mentally exhausting, having to think about every single little piece and they check it! It gets easier of course and the motivation that it may save lives and provide an advantage, is all you need to put in a good 7 hour shift every day. We have 15 to do this week and so far Turbota has done 300 of these!
After the long journey and before I can take the car anywhere else, it goes into the Sigma military garage I worked at before. My mate Stuart has come back from Sydney, Australia at virtually the same time as I arrived, so he is a familiar face and a great contact. So, for the cost of some tea bags and chocolate, it gets a good check over. Especially here and now, it's who you know!
So, now we are ready for the first aid trip, a big one down into the Donbas, to a small rural village just a handful of miles from the intense fighting in Bakhmut. We have medical items for the hospital and other personal and medical supplies, as well as drawing materials, games and chocolate for the children of the village. Keeping their spirits up, in even a small way is essential to their long-term mental health. On the way we see plenty of the war.
This tank is one of many by the side of the road, all the way from Izium to Bakhmut. Many military vehicles have been removed, but there are still plenty there, but not a priority. All the roads are 'corrugated' from the weight of the tank tracks as they dig into the tarmac, so there is a constant humming as you drive, like a faulty wheel-bearing, for those who know the sound!
There are still many main route bridges collapsed and yet to be rebuilt. Ukraine destroyed these bridges in an attempt to slow down or stop the Russians moving and in a bitter irony, it is now doing the same to them! I think there are hundreds to be rebuilt. The whole trip is 440km and now the major roads have been re-opened it is lot quicker, but when you turn off onto a side road to a village, they are generally very poor. The road to Rai-Oleksandrivka village is 5km of dirt tracks, with huge ruts and potholes from many military vehicles and heavy rain.
Eventually, we arrive and there is a crowd waiting. We unload all the aid, some goes to the hospital, where there is a donated British ambulance parked outside!
As we give the children their things, it is a very surreal moment. They smile and are happy and at the same time there is the boom! boom! boom! of fighting in Bakhmut, just a few miles away on the front-lines. Most of them don't even flinch now, maybe they have got used to it or maybe they just don't react to it. But they have had months of it, maybe they can just deal with it. I hope so.
We have a cup of tea in the Council Offices and then it's back to the road for the trip back. It all passes without incident, but I can't help feeling that this is the calm before a very big storm. On the way back, we stop a couple more times to look at abandoned vehicles, this one is another Russian tank just left in a field.
I am no longer surprised, when I am surprised in Ukraine! So, when I came across this incredible mural on the side of a bombed apartment block in Izium, I was very 'not' surprised!!
Of course, it says "Give peace a chance". Why wouldn't it?!
Last night, there were 6 missile strikes in Kharkiv, one was very close to me in the University district. I waited for all the windows to blow out, but it didn't happen this time. According to the news report, they were launched from aircraft. I find that more disturbing. We are all waiting. Waiting to see what happens next. But despite the atmosphere of war, the Ukrainians here still have a good sense of humour! Art plays a very important part in the psychology of the people. It is a good way to maintain their identity, stay strong and express themselves.
" I never thought I would wear this uniform,
- but this is my country"
To finish on a lighter note, I am always looking for new and interesting information and especially wall art. There is an artist here who uses cats with a message, I put a few pictures up last time. I have found many of them all over the city, many in alleys ways, where a cat would be! I also found the Holy Grail of 'cat war art' outside the Opera House. No less than eight pictures to lift the spirits and make you smile! They all carry a positive message of strength or of hope or humour, or all of the above!
"Don't make me angry"
"What is team Marvel?" "Armed Forces!"
"Burns beautifully!"
"There is hope, that means there will be a victory!"
"Everything will be Ukraine!"
It is not the same Ukraine I came to six months ago. Unsurprisingly, a lot of things have changed. The things that haven't changed, are the toxic criminality of the war started by Russia; the right of all Ukrainians to live freely in their own country and in peace and the continuing help of the rest of the world to see this through to a satisfactory conclusion. For that last part, I will continue to do my best.
On a destroyed religious monument, Izium.
SLAVA UKRAINI.
GLORY TO UKRAINE.
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