Punching Putin in the Face

 Punching Putin in the Face.

My best friend Derwent Jaconelli had been following the war in Ukraine on the Tv. As a result, he had got very wound up about it; so much so that he felt he had to do something. As he runs a logistics delivery company in London, Derwent has the vehicles, resources and contacts, to put an aid run together to help the beleaguered war torn country in a small way. However, he was going to drive there alone, but being as we grew up together in east london, and had become like another brother to me, I couldnt possibly allow that to happen. So I volunteered to join him as co driver. If there was trouble to face, we would do it together- as we had as children and teenagers etc.  I left Scilly for our trip to Ukraine on the 26th April.  I went over on the local ferry and arrived in penzance around 7pm. I stayed overnight in Penzance then caught a train to London the next morning.  I met Derwent at a building in Stratford where all the aid had been gathered together over the proceeding week and the full plan to deliver it all was laid out before me. That evening we went to watch our beloved West Ham loose at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. The next day, along with volunteers from the Stratford  E20 church we finished the loading of the truck.  Neither of us are religious but we let them say a prayer over us before we left. It could certainly do no harm and was even welcome under the soon prevailing circumstances.

Derwent on the left & me on the right. Life long buddies.

Donated supplies all sorted into groups boxed labelled weighed and ready to go.

We left london on the 29th  April and made Dover 3 hours later to get the ferry to cross the channel to France.  From there we drove through Belgium, and Holland. We then stopped at the German boarder to find a hotel but struggled. So decided to carry on driving through the night. We reached the eastern half of Germany the next morning and decided to get some sleep. 5 hours later we were on the road again and reached Poland that evening.  We carried on driving  and found a hotel at about 2 o'clock in the morning.  Poland seemed very nice and clean and pleasant but we were shattered and didnt rise until almost noon the following day. By now we were loosing track of days and time. We then contacted the Rotary club in Lyviv asking what to do next. Do we drop the cargo at an aid station on the polish ukrain border or had they another idea??  As we drove toward the said Polish aid station we learned that- as all men of fighting age could not leave the Ukraine, it was up to the women and children to go get the aid. We were also told that if we were ok with it -we could take ours directly into Lyviv. We were assured that there had been no recent bombing there, and nor had there been any fighting. We passed by the aid station (where tons of much needed things just sit and very slowly get released) and made our way to the boarder to see the situation there. On arrival at the boarder, there was a very long queue to get into ukraine and all seemed strangely relaxed. At seeing this, and guided by the rotary club inside, we decided to make for Lyviv. 6 hours later we eventually crossed the boarder. It was late afternoon. 

UNHCR tents inside the Ukraine boarder.

We  then passed through numerous road blocks and saw lots of soldiers and tank traps. Every village and town had road blocks and we were told that the country went into curfew after dark. So anyone on the move was deemed to be enemy and treated accordingly. Eventually, in a very messed up bombed down area of Lyviv we were met by a small group of Ukrainians who helped us unload our cargo of aid.  After this,  while drinking coffee with our helpers, we heard their war stories. One even showed us a video of missiles falling outside his office at work. They fell and destroyed an ordinary factory and workers inside. These stories brought home the sense of an overbaring superpower baring its might down upon these poor people. We felt very humbled by their bravery.  

One old lady had come all the way from Khakiv just to meet us.  She took all our wheelchairs crutches and walking frames and then she told us that, as we were setting of home-she would be heading back to the war and the front line with our items to help the recently wounded there!! What a brave lady. Here she is below exchanging rotary pendents with us.

After they had helped us unload, we were asked if we would like to stay the night! However, we had just driven by some serious bomb damaged buildings which do not feel one with a sense of security-but it was stressful enough on our families that we had even crossed the boarder let alone stay long.  Derwents family were especially angry at him for all the worry he was causing them. So we exchanged pleasantries and declined the kind offer. They then spotted our west ham scalf in our van and asked us which team it was. On hearing it was West Ham, one of them knew we had a famous song (Bubbles)we always sing at games, so they asked us if we would sing it for them. Derwent and I obliged and it echoed around the nearby bombed down streets attracting the attention of others nearby. We were heartily clapped at the end of our rendition. This ovation as not offered because either of us could sing at all, no- our simple tune had brought a small moment of respite from the situation surrounding them and we could sense that.   

Heres a picture after we had sung -Im forever blowing Bubbles. They wanted to hold up our scalf for the picture which was a nice touch too. It was all very moving. We then said our good byes, wished them luck, and we made a dash for the boarder to get out of the country before the curfew came down.  On the way out of lyviv I was determined to get a picture of one of their gold roofed churches. This one was somewhere along the road between lyviv and the boarder. The sun was setting.

It took us until sun up the next morning to get across the boarder; the checks were sooo looong and tedius. They even wanted to know where we got our fuel from as you are not aloud to buy fuel and take it out of the country. Later oon we were moving along a motorway in Poland and we were silent and in a kind of shock. We were elated but stunned as to what we had just achieved. We sat in the cab in silence with numerous feelings all conflicting inside us- thats when Derwent suddenly spoke- "you know what Todd" he said pensively,  "It feels like we have just punched Putin in the face".  "Yeh av that baldy" I replied.  At this we both laughed; it had broken the ice and we were then all a chatter going back to our hotel room in Poland.  We slept all that day and into the next morning. We awoke the next morning to hear on the news that Putin had bombed Lyviv again. Those poor people we had met. We now knew names and faces. It brought tears to our eyes. Putin had targeted the power stations meaning that they would now need generators for power, just like in all the other bombed places in Ukraine.  To this we knew we could  Punch Putin once again- because we had, at this point, raised over £6000 in donations- and that money would now be spent on much needed power generators. As I write Derwent is sourcing these in Poland. They will be delivered to Ukraine in the not to distant future. In the mean time we drive back to the safety of old blighty.  

Heres a letter from the Rotary club in Ukraine. This feedback makes it all worthwhile.