Delivery to Kherson

Over our year in Ukraine the blokposts (checkpoints) have become more and more lax, and some have disappeared altogether. But we always get stopped at the blokpost into Kherson, some times for longer than others.

This morning an officious army policeman checked our passports, the vehicle documents, inside the van, our phones - to check recent emails - and he quizzed us about where we were going. But as he said goodbye he called us "angels of mercy!" We don't think so!

Our first delivery was to the main hospital in Kherson, which is managing to function with a shortage of supplies and daily shelling; many windows are boarded up.

The doctors and nurses seemed very grateful for everything we brought, which included mattresses, sheets, crutches, walking frames, wheelchairs, blood pressure monitors and surface sanitising fluid. The nurses also saw that we had packets of ground coffee and asked for some of this - in a city where the war has made everything more expensive, coffee is a luxury.

Next, we visited the usual apartment block communities and took various items, donated, mainly, by Austrian organisations, including fruit tea and iced tea, coffee, chocolate, flashlights, batteries, and new men's T-shirts and socks.

We also gave out some powerbanks to 'community leaders,' who drive around the city looking for humanitarian aid and distribute it to their communities. As they are out and about a lot, their phones tend to run out of charge.

We dropped off several bags of dried dog food to the UNICEF volunteer camp, to be taken to people who look after street dogs in Kherson.

Kherson, itself, seemed relatively quiet today. The main shelling appeared to be targeting the surrounding villages; we could hear distant explosions. Whilst I was driving the van along the exposed road between Kherson and Mykolaiv, we could see various plumes of smoke and Bob actually saw a shell explode, fortunately in a field, so, hopefully, there were no casualties.

The state of the road from Odesa to Kherson seems to have got progressively worse, as the heat has caused heavy lorries to make grooves in the road and buckled it in places. Lorries were actually stopped this afternoon, in both directions, by Police, so as not to make the roads any worse. 

Finally, on the way back to Odesa we left baby clothing and quilts, and children's clothing, to volunteer friends who we know will distribute them appropriately.