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Update 18/05/2022
In the early morning today three vehicles led by the VW Transporter that we contributed to set off from Lviv to Kharkiv and the crew that went with them. We contributed towards the cost of the fuel for the journey.
Today was the birthday of the youngest of our refugee family, Alisa, she was 3 and away from her father, her grandfather and great grandmother. A really sad happy occasion.
The absent family are all in Kherson living in the Russian controlled area, they cannot leave the control zone and no one outside can enter. Incredibly though we were able to connect with her grandfather via video WhatsApp which for whatever reason the Russians have failed to close down, it was quite extraordinary that he could join the party from such a war zone. He told us that today missiles were attacking a small town just outside the Russian zone about three kilometres from him and the noise of the explosions quite deafened his mother but it is something that he has become used to. Grandfather is Halyna’s husband and she is with us too, she was telling us that he has diabetes controlled by drugs and before the Russians arrived in the city he had four months of tablets in stock now with no pharmacies open the only way is to buy medicines is in the street from people who have come to sell them from Crimea and they are so expensive that he just cannot afford them. She said simply “If the Russians don’t kill you physically then they will by lack of medicines” There is no way that any help can be sent to the people of Kherson.
On this happy sad day a little girl was thrilled.
Update 21/05/2022
Our main attention is most definitely turning towards the east of Ukraine. The expected influx of refugees from the east has not materialised with the majority of those displaced moving westwards but remaining in Ukraine. This has put massive pressure on the west central regions and in the west around Lviv. whilst here in Poland we are now seeing a movement to return to Ukraine where this is possible, the mayors of places such as Kyiv and Kharkiv are imploring people not to return but return they are and now this is also putting pressure on food and utility supplies in those areas.
In our village already 12 refugees have returned to Ukraine but the others have nowhere to return to as their homes and everything they owned are destroyed. And in the case of our own refugee family, the Russian so called governor of Kherson is now declaring that the area will be renamed as the Kherson region of the Russian Federation.
There is now enormous emphasis on helping the vast number of displaced people within Ukraine. This is typical of many areas, Rubizhne in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine shared the fate of Mariupol and is completely destroyed by Russian troops. There are graves in the back gardens and the surviving buildings are gone probably never to be rebuilt. Before the invasion more than 60,000 people lived in Rubizhne, they worked in factories, in the financial sector, in a developed small business sector. Today a town of "Looted and burnt brick boxes”with the Rubizhians are divided into three categories -
It is private people donating money, food and medicines who out of the kindness of their hearts are giving and physically taking to Ukraine not as paid NGOs but where every penny given or spent goes to those who need the aid.
I am proposing to go to central west Ukraine sometime in this coming week to see for myself the need of the displaced people there and to take with me at least £000 worth of food. I will join with Pastor Michał and possibly more in other vehicles all carrying humanitarian aid.
On my military side and for those with a military bent there is an excellent review by David Willey at the Tank Museum in Bovington on Ukraine & T-
Update 28/05/2022
My forty hours in Ukraine, a road journey half way to Kyiv summed up as an eerie normality with the following distractions:-
Wailing air raid sirens
Antitank obstacles, bunker barricades and check points
Fuelless service stations
Fast moving police escorted convoys, unmarked, unregistered 44 ton articulated trucks
Dedicated protestant church pastors and their flock
Statistics
According to the UN more than 14 million people are thought to have fled their homes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more than six million have left for neighbouring countries, while eight million people are displaced inside the war-
The UN says that as of 24 May, 2.1 million Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine. Ukraine's border force says people are crossing back into the country at a rate of about 30,000 a day.
Some are returning to areas of Ukraine such as the capital Kyiv, which were threatened by Russian army advances at the start of the war, but are now considered safer.
The UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said at the start of May that more than eight million people were internally displaced.
The IOM said:
23% of refugees were from the Kharkiv region, 20% from Kyiv and 17% from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine
27% had left their homes because they had been damaged or attacked in the war.
It estimates that more than half of the people who are internally displaced are women. Many are particularly vulnerable because they are pregnant, have a disability or are a victim of violence.
The UN states that it is working alongside other organisations to provide cash, food and other supplies. We saw and heard no evidence of this, instead it is local organisations organising humanitarian aid. Hence us being there representing the Evangelical churches.
Into Ukraine
We left before dawn on Tuesday, a convoy of three vehicles, two with trailers and loaded with approximately 5 tonnes of food. The largest load had come from England with two drivers and around 3 tonnes, the other two from locally here in Poland. The sun had risen by the time we reached the border control in the mountains, the furthest southern Polish crossing into Ukraine which with the three vehicles took us more than two hours to negotiate. It was likened by one of our number to being like Monty Python’ Flying Circus with the guards running around checking loads, paperwork and then a shift change in the middle of it all, so stop for coffee and let everyone wait. It was well armed girls on the Ukrainian side, their camouflaged patterned uniform looking as though it had been slept in and who were not in the best of humour so early in the morning. Of course the right hand drive caused a stir attracting guards away from other tasks to look.
I’d driven the road from that crossing point to Lviv before but of course before the war, now on every entry to village or town there were sandbagged emplacements and many guns around, there were Ukrainian flags everywhere even on bus shelters. Every service station we passed was out of fuel. Our first stop was in Lviv and as we entered the city the barricaded check points was massive with heavily armed soldiers and police stopping vehicles, when it was our turn it was very jovial with thanks for bringing aid so far.
We met up with Pastor Volodymyr from Kremenchuk on the Dnipro in eastern Ukraine who took half our load of aid, it had been deemed too dangerous for us to take it there ourselves. At this point we cross loaded the other half of the load into the one vehicle and trailer. One vehicle returned to Poland and the other parked up so we were all in one vehicle for the onward journey. But before doing so we stopped at a shopping centre (just the same as any you would find in west Europe) to look for a cafeteria for food, we were just sitting down and deciding what to eat when the air raid sirens went off. There was no rush and no panic, people steadily streamed outside or into the basement area come bomb shelter. We went well away from the building and half an hour later the all clear sounded and we returned to eat.
It was late afternoon when we were on the road to Khmelnytsky, roughly half way to Kyiv and considered to be safe (see attached map). Our problem was to find diesel for the vehicle, every fuel station indicated empty and in those that had just had a delivery there were long queues. We took a chance and pulled into a Shell station, with charm and because we were carrying humanitarian aid we were allowed to buy and pay for 20 litres at a time until the tank was full. Certainly we caused a stir in that service station, three Englishmen and one Pole but with good humour.
We continued the journey via Turnopil, a beautiful lakeside city of mainly Austrian architecture, the road there and beyond again with road blocks and heavily armed troops with even small artillery. All along the road there were patriotic billboards.
By late evening we arrived in Khmelnytsky to meet with Pastor Pavel and his many helpers to unload the car and the trailer. There are 50,000 internally displaced people in the area around the city and in the region 350,000 with 380 directly under the care of the Pavel’s church almost all coming from Chernihiv area and being housed in the church rooms and the local community. The donated food will be used in a centralised kitchen where there are no cooking facilities in accommodations, and where individuals have the ability to cook their own food it will be distributed in individual bags as Vitaly does with his deliveries to Kharkiv.
We spent the night in the church hostel only to be awoken at 0443 by the air raid sirens. We suspect missiles going overhead on their way to some target further north-
In Lviv we met with Pastor Mihai and future needs were discussed. As we had exhausted all our food supplies food and other essentials were bought and given to Mihai to distribute to some of the refugees under his care. In the late afternoon we headed for the Polish border and this time crossed quickly. On the way home we stopped at a project that with Pastor Michał, Bruce Pullman from Southampton who was with us on the journey into Ukraine is the main sponsor. The project is to turn a forty metre long pig and cow shed into permanent living accommodation for refugees and homeless people, it is already housing 7 refugees but with completion within a couple of months the number should rise to 30. It is then intended to give these refugees remote online employment with Ukrainian companies particularly in the USA. The project is almost entirely funded by sponsors of Bruce in the UK.
Late that night I arrived home. An uplifting experience of being with displaced families and through you being able to provide them with food when they have lost everything in their lives. The thanks of Pastors Michał, Vladimir, Pavel and Mihai was one of humbleness and gratefulness. If you can we can help them more and with Pastor Vitaly and his mission there are so many mouths to feed. I know that we cannot feed everybody but we can help.
Update 01/06/2022
On the 98th day of the war a postscript to my last update following some queries received:-
The original organisation for the visit to Ukraine last week was for two vehicles to go Kremenchuk on the river Dnipro but Pastor Vladimir there deemed it to be too dangerous for us hence our journey with just one vehicle and trailer terminating in Khmelnytsky but transhipping the load destined for Kremenchuk in Lviv.
Pastor Pavel in Khmelnytsky was totally stunned by the amount of food that we brought to him on the Tuesday night, more so that there were three English speakers delivering it. He made us very welcome, provided what accommodation he could and even personally cooked breakfast for us after our early morning awakening by the air raid sirens. We understood later that three missiles passed overhead but were shot down somewhere north east of us.
An incredible experience to see and to feel what the people in Ukraine are going though even away from the ground fighting itself. We talked to many displaced people some who have lost everything and the stoicism and calmness has to be seen to be believed.
We shall organise a similar run in a few weeks time, we are already meeting and planning detail. I wish to include the two UK churches which were involved last week again but planning this is somewhat more complicated but feasible.
Meantime Pastor Vitaly in Lviv has sent another convoy of three vehicles with food this week to the Kharkiv area based on money that you and others have contributed. I am in touch with him nearly everyday as again the journey becomes more dangerous.
Meanwhile here now summer has come there are parties at the weekend for Ukrainian children and also parties for them to mix with the local community. This was last Sunday in the next village to us with our refugee family who have been with us for six weeks now.
Fun for all no matter the age.
Unfortunately back to reality
Russian commanders forced soldiers to sign statements that they would kill civilians during the war in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU ) informed, which posted a video on Facebook showing an excerpt from the interrogation of one of the prisoners.
“I'm a sniper. We received an order to sign an agreement that we will kill civilians in Ukraine. On April 29, I signed such a document, but some refused. However, the deputy commander for political affairs told them to give their consent, because if they did not go to Ukraine, they would be placed in disciplinary arrest, dismissed from service or worse”reported the prisoner captured by Ukrainian troops near Volnova in the Donetsk region.
The war is not about to end and the fleeing millions inside Ukraine need massive aid and this can only come from such organisations that we are committed to help with your contributions.
Update 04/06/2022
This is a report from Pastor Vitaly on his latest convoy to supply humanitarian aid to the area of Kharkiv region which has suffered so badly from constant Russian bombardment and then partial occupation. I would add that Vitaly does not go himself as there is much to organise for future journeys however he now only allows volunteers, young and without family commitment.
We received humanitarian aid from friends in Europe and money from Britain and in addition to food and medicine we also received diesel for at the moment this is a great blessing for us as the situation with fuel in Ukraine is not the best. Thank you to those in Britain for providing the money to allow us to buy food and to acquire enough diesel for the three vehicles which has enabled this delivery to take place. without that fuel we would have been unable to undertake the return journey.
We left early in the morning and thankfully without incident arrived in the region.
The village of Kitsivka.
The shops in the village have been closed for two weeks.
Now we bring them food.
The city of Dnipro.
Unloading the much needed medicines which had been specifically ordered and obtained from Germany and Poland.
The local church in the city of Zaporizhzhia received us well and generously.
People who came to take humanitarian aid from the church sang in praise.
The city is continuously under fire by cruise missiles launched by air and from ships thankfully not when we were there.
We have empty transport now and were able to take 19 displaced people to Kyiv and Lviv. The journey was difficult with frequent stops because of air raid sirens but we were not affected and returned safely to Lviv.
Last week I was travelling back from Lviv and passed through the small town of Sambir about 15 kilometres from the Polish border, a week later on Wednesday evening the railway freight yards where the road I was on crossed the track were hit by two missiles fired from the Black Sea, both hit their target. In my mind I ask how can these missiles travel overland for 1000 kilometres and not get shot down, there are just not enough anti missile systems.
This weekend both here in Poland and in Ukraine there are parties primarily for refugees and celebrations for Children’ Day, a time for the children to forget that their fathers are not with them but fighting on the Ukrainian frontline.
