"From Dreams to Reality” – Pierre’s trip to Kyiv

My journey to Brovary started smoothly; British Airways flies to Krakow daily. It was still quite fast on a modern Polish inter-city train to Przemysl, an old city near the Ukraine border. Then things really slowed down while around 1,000 returning Ukrainians, mainly women and some children, queued outside in the dark and cold in the middle of the night to be processed by six Ukrainian customs officers in a small building near the waiting overnight train to Kyiv. The train was reasonably comfortable and left two hours late on its ten hour, 500 mile journey, halfway across this huge country.

Not long after leaving Przemysl, we stopped in the middle of nowhere, right on the border, while various unexpected guests boarded, and walked up and down the aisle many times, including senior customs and border staff, inspecting passports not once but twice, uniformed military personnel in battle fatigues carrying serious looking automatic weapons carefully pointed downwards, and finally other soldiers with their sniffer dogs which were lifted up onto all shelves of luggage racking for serious checks, including the toilets. None of them were smiling. They were clearly taking their jobs seriously and no risks are being taken with Ukraine’s existing borders. Most of these teams stayed on board for the next two hours, making further inspections until we reached our first stop at Lviv.

Finally we arrived in Kyiv mid-morning, just an hour late. I was met on the platform by smiling Anastasia, founder and hard-working boss of the FD2R charity, her sister who was the first of three volunteer drivers that day, and a bilingual volunteer to be my interpreter. We went down the main street, past Independence Square with one small flag per soldier lost since the war started in 2014. Then across two bridges spanning the mighty Dnipro River, and finally to the satellite town of Brovary, fifteen miles Northeast of Kyiv.

Their charity hub was very much as I had seen from photos, now very full of donated clothing, bedding etc. There are government hostels in Brovary where frequently evacuees from the Kharkiv region arrive with little to no bedding or clothing. Our supplies are much appreciated. FD2R make visits to the front line in the Donbas region, taking with them camouflage netting made to order, so I did a small stint tying strips of the correct colour rags onto the net in progress. They also bring back from the front spent gas canisters and modify them with a little hinged door at the front, and a chimney. They then go back into service at the battlefront with slow-burning candles inside for the soldiers to keep their tea and food warm. The Ukrainians are resourceful people indeed.

I managed to fit in a little sightseeing on my second day before embarking on the long train rides back to Krakow. The young lady sitting next to me on the train enquired about my reason for visiting. When I mentioned being involved with a charity, she immediately said “Thank you, thank you very much”, the standard answer from these genuinely grateful people. I was asked what I liked about Ukraine - 1, 2, 3, please! I replied that 1. the fact that every house in the country has a huge vegetable garden, an orchard of fruit trees, and a well with a roof, so healthily self-sufficient. 2. the amazing bravery of the people, their pride in their lovely country and their resilience. And 3. the sheer scale of Ukraine, similar to Canada where I spent twenty years, with as many large grain silos and long grain trains, although Ukraine seems to make much more use of its vast railway network for both freight and passenger trains, the latter of which are somewhat faster than in Canada. My overnight train achieved 162 km/hr or 101 mph, as displayed on the overhead screens. 

Overall it was a long and tiring trip, with just one proper sleep in a hotel bed over a four-day period. But it was immensely worthwhile to meet, face to face, the people we have been dealing with by WhatsApp and video call for over two years now.

Slava Ukraini, and thank you to all those in Chorleywood and neighbouring villages who have supported our charity in so many ways, and ultimately therefore helped the genuinely appreciative people of Ukraine.

In order to continue to make quarterly 1-ton shipments through to Brovary, of good quality clothing and bedding, especially with a difficult winter ahead and insufficient power supplies, we continue to rely on your goods donations and also financial donations to help with packing and shipping costs.

Pierre Bosdet, Trustee, Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine