Kherson...a day of mourning


So today was a day of mourning in Kherson, for the 7 innocent civilians, including 2 children who died yesterday.
Made no difference - whilst I was there the Russian shelling continued, as the aid that I had brought was shared out.

This worked like clockwork. The volunteers put the fruit into boxes, and people would walk along the boxes and take what had been allocated/was needed. 
I met the bouncy organiser of this centre. I was told that it hadn't always been this orderly. An example was given of when bread was brought and a queue would form - those at the front would "sell" their place to someone at the back!! She says that there has been a real change in attitude.


The food given out, I went to work with the children in the UNICEF centre, which, as always, was fun...animals today.

Just wanted to mention two things. Fi's journey to Lviv was on a hot, slow bus, the journey lasting 14 hours. No toilet or facilities on board. She had to take the bus as the trains are still packed with people leaving this area. The exodus continues.

The second thing is that Radio Lancashire, some time ago, wrote to us to inform us that we have been nominated (no idea who nominated us) for a bravery award. Apparently, out of thousands of nominations, we have got to the final with 3 other candidates. The decision will be made on 9th September at a ceremony in Chorley. Unfortunately, we'll be on our way back to Ukraine.
We were informed that we could share this on social media, etc, but we haven't got round to doing so. We've put it on here now.

Last night was awful in Odesa. 17 missiles altogether. All shot down, but still injuries and fires. You don't sleep through these barrages. They are intense. You just hope it's not your apartment block that is hit.
The last photo is of a shopping centre hit, not far from us. Basically like Sainsbury's going up in flames.

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