Mike writes:

Jeremy and I returned home from our P4P (Pick ups for Peace) trip to Ukraine on the evening of Sunday 11th May.  From start to finish the whole venture was a very humbling and uplifting experience. The “deal” with P4P was that we raised sufficient money to buy a pickup truck, load it with aid items, either donated, scrounged or purchased by us out of money that we raised, and then under the P4P umbrella drive it out to L’viv where we would give the whole lot, truck and all, to the Ukrainian army for their use.  P4P would then arrange for us to get back to the UK, and very broadly that is what happened. 

In all this we were guided by P4P who sourced the vehicle for us: told us what sort of things to fill it with, set the timetable, gave us guidance on routes, RVs and general administrative instructions for the convoy.  Then, once we were on the road P4P  shepherded the convoy from UK to L’viv.  It was a very slick and well practised operation conducted with style and great good humour: P4P had brought together some 40 vehicles driven by crews old and young, from all over the UK, very few of whom had met any of the other crews before and the whole operation was “controlled” by use of a WhatsApp group.  It was P4P’s 20th convoy and in total they have taken out over 600 vehicles to Ukraine.  So P4P had done it before, but given that none of the vehicles were exactly new and the crews were basically civilian volunteers who had not met before, it was a minor miracle that it all worked and that all 40 vehicles arrived in L’viv in good order on Friday 9th evening within a couple of hours of the scheduled time.

The highlight of the drive was perhaps the final 50 mile stage from the Ukrainian border into L’viv, for this part we were formed up into a ‘proper’ convoy and, led by a police vehicle blue light flashing, we drove hell for leather through red lights, stop signs and any other impediment to progress - "Just keep up and keep going" was the cry - and local traffic wisely pulled into the side of the road to watch us roar past.  From Jeremy’s home in NE Dorset to L’viv we drove over 1450 miles which I think that was about average for the group.

It was humbling and uplifting because I simply wasn’t prepared for the immediate and overwhelming response from all of our kind donors: within the first few days of our appeal we had raised enough money on JustGiving to buy our vehicle, a Ford Ranger 4x4 with over 171 thousand miles on the clock.  At the same time as launching our financial appeal Jeremy and I went cap in hand to a number of local businesses, explained what we were doing and asked for whatever help they could give in the way of aid items and once again the response was tremendous.  Suffice it to say that in a very short time we had enough kit to fill not only our own truck but another complete truck and we part filled 2 more.  So a huge thanks to all of those who donated tyres, jerrycans, oil, chainsaws, shovels, tools, medical kits, generators, tow straps, computers, crutches, tie downs, snow chains, tarpaulins, cable ties, jump leads and yard brooms.  We did not have to buy any of this kit so the money raised over and above that needed to buy our vehicle has gone to P4P to help fund other vehicles and to meet the basic overheads for the convoys.

On the morning of Saturday 10th we were taken to see the “Field of Mars” war cemetery for the city. of L'viv  The Field of Mars is very different to any of the CWGC cemeteries one might have seen around the world, for a start each grave bears the photograph of the occupant, mostly young men in their twenties or early 30s but there was more than a sprinkling of girls too and each grave had at least two flags flying, one for Ukraine and the other for their military unit.  While we were there a funeral was taking place at one end of the plot and throughout the whole cemetery families, young and old were visiting and tending to the graves: the cemetery was a busy place.  The general hustle and bustle thus created was only increased by the hundreds of flags which fluttered constantly in the wind, restful it was not.  That visit was followed by a ‘formal’ handover of our vehicles to the military with many speeches and photographs. 

After lunch on Saturday, I went on a farm tour during which we were taken see large potato farm and starch factory an hour’s drive out of L’viv.  The countryside was very flat, fertile and has a the good average rainfall which made it ideal for growing potatoes on a huge scale, which they did.  I am still try to visualise a field of several thousand acres which it takes three days to drive just around the edge - that is a lot of spuds!  That evening there was a dinner for all the crews with more speeches from the locals. It was clear that the Ukrainians, who are in no mood to give up their fight, are most grateful for all the donated vehicles which are put to good use by the local units mounted with machine guns for air defence or simply for resupply or casevac when out of contact with the enemy, and all the donated goodies are also clearly an enormous help, but the morale booster for them was the knowledge that they have not been forgotten and that someone outside their country cares that they are taking on the Russians and wants them to be victorious.

Sunday 11th saw us make a very early start to catch a bus to the Polish border.  We walked across the border to another waiting bus, thereafter by rail to Krakow airport and an EasyJet flight home to Gatwick where we had left Jeremy’s car on our way past on the outward journey.  All in all it was a fascinating trip and great fun, our fellow volunteers were an interesting bunch: one chap had flown in from the USA to take part, another had come from from Canada , many Scots from Scotland, two crews from Jersey, everyone there with a common purpose and because they wanted to be.  Would we do it again? Yes, at the drop of a hat, but we just have to work out how we can fund it next time!

A huge thank you to all our donors of both cash and kit, without your support our trip would not have been possible.