Chernihiv.

It started with an early morning drive from Kyiv to Chernihiv, trying to avoid the many police speed traps...they must make a fortune on this road.

The day was set up to deliver aid to a village just to the north east of Chernihiv.

I have delivered aid to some interesting places, but never have I delivered to to a destroyed home before. 

So, what's happening here, is that volunteer carpenters and builders and electricians are trying to rebuild the homes. It works like this. First they try to make a temporary shelter in the ground of the destroyed home for the family to live in, then they get on and rebuild the main home. 

But, and there always seems to be a but, the government will supply some of the building materials, not enough to complete the job, nor pay for any of the labour costs. So in this area,  it's left to volunteers to raise the remainder of the money for the remaining materials. They are prepared to give their labour for free. 

Again, I see a division. People with money can go ahead and rebuild their lives and homes. Those without, well seeing the level of damage and destruction, who knows how long they will have to wait till the volunteers get around to doing their homes. The aid that you see in the first photo will be shared with others in similar situations. Below some of the destroyed homes....and there were many many more.

The hole you see in the next photo was a house on 3 floors, a heavy bomb landed on the home, many were killed and this is what remains. All traces gone.

This area has received some really good help. In two locations in and around the village, the Polish government has paid for 120 "pods" to be built as temporary shelter. It gives shelter. 

This is it. There's nothing else. In the individual pods there is no running water. There are a couple of showers down the corridor and a toilet block. Financially they are completely reliant on the very small amount of money given to them by the state. They literally have next to nothing. Some of the aid was distributed here.

You might see some athletic looking youngsters here. This is because this is where olympic athletes used to train. This is their facility now.

The pods were built on the training areas. Ironic then, that Russian athletes will now be allowed to compete in the next Olympics. This is one way to get rid of the opposition. So much more went on today, useful contacts and ideas. Too much to report here. But I want to thank everyone I met for their time and their stories. I especially want to thank Alla. Without her today would not have happened. Дуже дякую.