A long journey south

 
We are on an aid run to Mykolaiv and Kherson, which would normally be a journey that we would do over a couple of days. It will be a 1850-kilometres round trip, which we realised is actually further than the recent journey we made from Istanbul, through Bulgaria and Romania, to Ternopil, Ukraine!
However, we decided to get as far as we could today - to our friends east of Odesa - mainly because we have a lot to do tomorrow. As well as two separate aid drops along roads that are very badly damaged, we hope to be able to deliver these lovely trauma teddies and chicks, made by the Penparcau community in Wales, to a school or children's hospital in Kherson. 
There is no guarantee that we will be able to do this because the situation in Kherson is very difficult and subject to change. The region is constantly shelled and it is reported that the local government may be preparing for a mass evacuation of the area. 

We left Lviv at 7am. We were fortunate in having lovely weather for our now customary lunch and tea breaks by a lake, as can be seen in the main photo and below. We have named this aid van, Tereza (Tereza Dereza), because every aid van seems to need a name.
En route, beside a petrol station, we met a young American volunteer called Jason, who came over to ask us for help as his car had broken down. We put him in touch with Yaroslav, Wheels of Victory, who not only said that he could help, but arranged for Jason's vehicle to be towed the considerable distance to Ternopil.

After we had some peaceful moments beside a lake near Vinnytsia, we walked into the nearby village and came across this really poignant memorial to the villagers who died during the second world war.
We wonder how many new memorials there will be when the slaughter of this war has ended. We continue to be horrified by every atrocity - on Friday a
Russian missile strike on a tower block in Uman, central Ukraine, killed at least 23, including six children. The number of children killed by the war has reached 477 (The Guardian).
We passed by Uman today. It's a place where we often stay the night to break up our journeys to and from southern Ukraine. It's really not a town of any apparent significance, other than having a large Jewish population and a beautiful arboretum. It could have no strategic value and there does not even seem to be an attempt by the Russians to disguise the attack as being anything other than what it was - the murder of innocent civilians.

We arrived with our friends in Odesa just after 8pm. They are always incredibly welcoming and generous, even when it is a last-minute arrangement. We'll need to be on the road again by 7am tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Third Christmas of the War.

Image
I remember when we first went to Ukraine, we thought we'd better hurry up and get over there to help before the war finished, and there'd be nothing for us to do. How naïve were we? The situation in Ukraine at present has got even worse, especially in the areas in close contact with the Russian forces, although with the constant Shahed and missile attacks nowhere is safe. Kherson has become particularly difficult, and delivering aid there is a direct threat to life. Any vehicle or person can be targeted by Russian small killer drones. This week, a vehicle that is used to deliver aid that we have sometimes used, was attacked and badly damaged beyond repair. Miraculously, the driver, a person I know survived but suffered injuries.  The occupants of a bus were not so fortunate. It was attacked, 3 people died and several more injured. It's really terrifying.  What's really sick is that the Russian's then post o...
Read more

The killing goes on.

Image
Time diminishes things. News cycles bring new, more pressing concerns. But the war here in Ukraine grinds on, with deaths a daily occurrence. The killing seems to have become more incideous and heartless.This weekend in Kherson, delivering aid, under the fairly constant sound of artillery and drone attacks, I heard and saw the inhumanity of this senseless war. There is now a real tangible fear about going out in your car in Kherson. Over the last few months, individual cars have been targeted by Russian drones. These carry small bombs or grenade type munitions. . A car is targeted. An initial bomb dropped. The man realises he's  being targeted and tries to drive away at high speed. He then stops suddenly, hoping to get away. Opens his door to run away, but about two metres away from the car a small bomb explodes. With the door open, nothing seems to happen, then as in slow motion, a man falls from the driver's seat onto the road. Dead. It...
Read more

Krakow to Lviv

Image
We left Krakow at 3am because we had heard that there have been up to 3 hour waits on the Poland-Ukraine border. The balance has changed to more people returning to Ukraine (to the relatively safe western Lviv region) than leaving Ukraine. As it happened, we drove through the fairly haphazard border controls with no hold up. The first thing we noticed on the Ukrainian side were miles (literally) of lorries lining the side of the highway, which was only 2 lanes so made for fairly scary driving. On the Polish side was an equally long line of parked cars, waiting to be sold. We also noticed more potholes on Ukrainian roads than even East Lancashire! The purpose of our visit to Ukraine is 2-fold: firstly, we drove our friend, Romana, home to Lviv (in her car) with her 4-year-old daughter, as she decided against coming to England in order to be with her husband and family. Secondly, w...
Read more