Vinnytsia to home

This was sunrise at 6am from our hotel in the lovely small city of Vinnytsia in central west Ukraine. It's one of the many places far from the frontline that has suffered atrocities during this war. The Russian army has launched several rocket attacks on Vinnytsia. The worst was an attack on the city centre on 14 July 2022. 28 people were killed, including 3 children (one a little girl aged 4), and at least 202 people were injured. It has been labeled as a war crime by EU officials.

From Vinnytsia we drove to the garage in Ternopil. The mechanics had fixed the Polish van, Bohumila, which we exchanged for the van that had been kindly lent to us for this aid trip. On the way we passed endless, vast ploughed fields. Some are so large you can barely see the other side. We can't imagine how you would begin to plough such fields.

Back in Lviv there was sleety snow - just when we thought winter was over!

I read today that the British ambassador to Ukraine has said: the 'seemingly endless air raid sirens right now' are a test of resilience for the population, which I can attest to: on our long journey yesterday there were at least 6 - I lost count of them. I didn't have much sleep the night before and was trying to nap in the van, only to be woken, after minutes, by the air raid alert App on our phone.

I know Bob sometimes likes to add something amusing to our blogs. Here is mine - me looking ridiculously pleased with a large jar of marmite! Thank you Shaun (UK4UA) for bringing this all the way from the UK. :)
As there are several photos today, I'll leave the painting by the young artist we are supporting until another day. It deserves it's own space.

Tomorrow we leave early for Krakow to pack the van with another load of aid that will be going to villages in Chernihiv district, which were bombed and brutally occupied by the Russian army. We will visit the school we are supporting and buying books with donations received. We'll buy some dog food as this is always needed.
If you would like to support us, please donate as follows. Any amount is always valuable:
1. Open PayPal and, when asked for name of payee or email, enter trawden4ukraine@hotmail.com. 
If you live in/near Trawden:
2. Use the collection box in Trawden community shop.

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