Aid volunteer moved by stories from Ukraine

A volunteer who recently delivered aid to Ukraine has spoken about the fears facing young people whose lives have been shaped by war.

Iain Penning, 60, who owns a cafe in Bottesford, Leicestershire, has completed his second aid convoy with the charity Pickups for Peace, which delivers vehicles and supplies to communities across Ukraine.

Among the experiences that stayed with him was a meeting with two students in the western city of Lviv.

The young men, 21 and 22, spoke about their ambitions and plans for the future, but were worried they could one day be called up to fight.

Penning said listening to their experiences was an "overwhelming" reminder of the uncertainty many Ukrainians continue to face more than four years after Russia's full-scale invasion.

He joined Pickups for Peace about a year ago and has since travelled across Europe delivering aid.

The charity buys four-wheel-drive vehicles, fills them with supplies requested by organisations in Ukraine and drives them to where they are needed.

On the latest convoy, volunteers transported medical supplies for hospitals and other support for communities affected by the conflict.

He said the students, who feared being conscripted, spoke about their dreams and everything they wanted to do with their lives.

"Everything that you and I take for granted, everything that you and I just literally get on with every day, they can't."

Penning said he also met women who had travelled from Kyiv to Lviv to escape the strain of living under the constant threat of air attacks.

"They can't take the strain of the air raid sirens and the missiles landing around them," he said.

"Some of them had actually moved out of Kyiv because it was too dangerous to live there."

Another encounter came while the convoy team stopped in Krakow, Poland, on their journey home.

He said a Ukrainian woman working in a bar became emotional when the group explained they had been delivering aid.

"She just burst into tears," he said.

"It was just incredibly moving.

"You have an overwhelming sense that you are actually making a difference, not just driving the vehicles over to Ukraine and distributing the aid they really need, but meeting the people as well.

"They feel forgotten."

Pickups for Peace organises three or four convoys to Ukraine each year and Penning hopes to return in February.

He said the volunteers also met a hospital worker whose department specialised in caring for amputees, including soldiers injured on the front line.

The worker told the group the hospital treated three times as many children as soldiers, something Penning described as "absolutely heart-wrenching".

He said it was important the conflict remained in the public eye.

"As there are other world events happening around us, Ukraine can sometimes be taken off the front pages," he said.

"We try as a charity to keep people talking about it and remind people what the people of Ukraine are going through."

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