‘Hell on earth’: NZ charity delivers Aid to Ukraine hotspots
This weekend ReliefAid will be secretly moving 18 trucks of supplies into areas that Russian forces are determined to ‘siege, starve and shell’. Virginia Fallon
reports.
It’s the contradictions that have been getting to Mike Seawright.
Walking the streets of Lviv the other morning, the New Zealander stopped to listen to church bells calling worshippers to Sunday Mass; within minutes the peaceful sound was drowned out by the noise of air sirens.
A few days later he ate lunch at a little Italian restaurant in the city while 550km away the people of Bucha died.
‘‘There were bodies lying on the ground.’’
Seawright is speaking from Lviv before he sets out for Kyiv, overseeing truckloads of medical and food supplies for the people trapped in war hotspots. Today he’ll be making the dangerous journey to Bucha, a place he describes as hell on earth.
About a month ago the founder of ReliefAid was en route to oversee the charity’s work in the Middle East, but when Russia invaded Ukraine he immediately diverted his trip to set up another humanitarian operation.
Since his arrival, ReliefAid has delivered more than six tonnes of food to places that have already seen the worst of the war and remain under systematic attack. Ukrainian volunteers have risked their lives to deliver meat, vegetables, milk and dried goods to Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, and medical supplies to hospitals in and around Kyiv.
Tourniquets are in hot demand, which Seawright says gives some idea of what kinds of injuries are being treated. ‘‘We’re talking blown-off limbs, we’re talking amputations.’’
Seawight says the Ukrainian medical system is doing an amazing job, but supplies aren’t reaching the hospitals. ReliefAid
is delivering first aid kits and those much-needed tourniquets both to hospitals and its volunteer network who are coming across severely injured people and transporting them to medical help.
‘‘They’re basically driving homemade ambulances.’’
Deliveries of tools and materials to repair bombdamaged buildings will start this week, as will supplies of thermal blankets, solar lamps and hygiene kits for people living without power and water in those buildings and collective centres.
Getting the supplies in is no mean feat. This weekend 18 trucks will arrive from Poland
into Lviv where their loads will be transferred to local vehicles in secret locations before heading on to Kyiv for distribution. The operation is done in parts to elude being targeted by the Russian invaders.
‘‘The ‘siege, starve and shell’ approach we’ve seen in Syria is being applied here to the civilian population,’’ he says.
‘‘There is an interest to hold civilians in these areas for military gain.’’
Seawright says the atrocities being committed can’t be understated. Last week Bucha’s mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said about 270 residents had been buried in two graves and estimated 40 bodies were littered on the streets.
ReliefAid volunteers saw the horror for themselves. ‘‘These are just young men who want to help, and they were faced with what nobody in the country expected, despite having now had seven weeks of lessons about war.’’
At a recent logistics meeting men broke down and cried, he says. They’re worried about their families in Mariupol, worried about what will be left behind when peace finally comes.
‘‘They knew their homes would be damaged, but their people? Their people are gone.’’
Seawright says the kindness of Kiwis is making a lifesaving difference in Ukraine. NZ-based volunteers are working day and night to organise logistics, and the amount of cash donated from other Kiwis has been astounding.
The operation is settling in for the long haul though, and Seawright thinks things will get a lot worse before they begin to get better.
‘‘Hopefully we’re out of a job one day. For ReliefAid to be unemployed would be a good thing.’’
A Givealittle page has been set up to support ReliefAid’s work in Ukraine. If you’d like to donate, visit givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/ ukraine-appeal-reliefaid.