Travel diary from Ukraine
I attended a meeting held in Westminster only a month ago to hear of the work by the Christian Medical and Dental Assn in Ukraine, an hour later two of us had committed to find Members of Parliament to raise the money and buy five ambulances, fill them with medical supplies and drive them to Lviv.
Danny Chambers a former vet and now the LibDem MP for Winchester was the first to say yes, then Alex Cole-Hamilton the leader of the LibDems at the Scottish Parliament, and Paul Sweeney a Labour MSP, along with Simon Brake the organizer who set up Mighty Convoy to organize things and has now taken 43 ambulances out…..we had us a convoy!
My Irish wife Michie was delighted to be my co-driver, though I knew we’d have a battle as I’d want to listen to business and political podcasts and she would want gardening podcasts and audio books about explorers as we trundled non stop the 2000 kilometres from London to Lviv.
We departed at 7am on Wednesday the 9th , through the Channel tunnel, through Belgium and Holland and into Germany. Heavy traffic, excellent motorways and extremely boring countryside…….not a hillock to be seen. We had walkie talkies, the craic was good between vehicles, stopping every three hours to swap drivers and refuel on snacks and coffee. At dusk we paused for a quick wiener schnitzel and non alcohol beer at a small restaurant in a German town.
Then the dreaded night shifts, the roads were still busy with nose to tail trucks, but we could motor a bit faster. These ambulance seats were not built for long distance driving, they don’t recline at all and are hard. Heads in the passenger seats jolted painfully as we tried to sleep. Thursday morning we motored into Poland, marveling at its prosperity and how the country had changed over the last 15 years.
There was a wonderful moment when we passed 30 British fire engines bedecked in Union Jacks and Ukrainian flags who realizing we were going the same way flashed blue lights and turned on their sirens. We waved excitedly at each other. Fire Aid have taken 134 appliances to Ukraine now, and approaching 1000 pickups have been donated by the British, we saw so many green repainted right hand drive vehicles when we were there.
At 3pm we were at the Polish/Ukrainian border, Simon our fantastic convoy leader had tales of much Polish bureaucracy and four hour waits, but this time we were though within an hour. On small roads now we snaked through the countryside to Lviv, each village graveyard with freshly dug graves and Ukrainian flags bringing home the personal cost of the Russian invasion to each local community. At 6pm we were being warmly welcomed by Uliana, the capable and lovely young woman who runs the charity and who persuaded Danny and I to get this convoy together in London in March.
Central Lviv, is truly beautiful, a UNESCO site. Uliana had found a really fun restaurant for us, but we had to eat quickly due to a curfew. It was snowing hard as we came out. Never has a bed been more welcome.
At 8am on Friday we were being shown around the amputee wards of St Panteleimon’s Hospital, blown away by how immaculate and professional it was. Tears welled up as we saw a veteran with no arms or legs going through physiotherapy. They was a centre for survivors of captivity and torture. Then to meet the Mayor Andrii Sadovyj for a hot chocolate, who told us of ‘Unbroken’ the initiative to work with the ‘hero’s’ as the military are called. 20% of the cities income is handed over for the war effort. We went to one of the several drone manufacturers in the city, leaving with some knowledge of how this harrowing war is now being fought. Then finally a visit to an army camp for a reception from senior officers. Their speeches were so heartfelt about how supportive Britain was and how our leadership in supporting Ukraine was essential to encourage other countries, we were all emotional again.
On our several hour journey to Warsaw airport we chatted about how resilient the Ukrainians were and how they would never give up. We discussed the war crimes in Bucha, the 19,000 Ukrainian children taken by the Russians, and about how Trump seemed to be siding with Putin. Every one of us was proud to have done a small bit to help; Slava Ukraini.