'This was forced on them': Friends deliver life saving supplies to Ukraine's front line
A group of friends have delivered essential supplies to Ukraine
A group of friends have driven more than 1,300 miles to deliver life-saving supplies to the front line in Ukraine.
Ryan Dipper, from Waterlooville, has completed his second convoy with Driving Ukraine, spending three days travelling from the UK to Lviv in western Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since 2022.
He said: “I wanted to do something for a while to help out with the war that is going on out there but I had no idea where to start or what to do. I had no direct affiliation with the Ukrainian people apart from empathy and sympathy.
“I rang my best mate and said, ‘I’m driving to Ukraine, do you want to come?’ He initially laughed and then said he was on board. So that was our first convoy. The second convoy had a lot more weight behind it.”
The 28-year-old spent months collecting first aid kits and goal netting, which can be used to camouflage military vehicles on the front line. He also managed to trade a paperclip for a Land Rover Discovery, which was donated to the cause.
After filling vehicles with supplies, the group – consisting of 20 cars and 40 volunteers – set off on May 28, taking the Land Rover Discovery acquired through Ryan’s trading challenge with them.
He added: “It’s really eye-opening and sombre. We met at the drop-off point and there were soldiers there – sure enough, they picked up supplies and went straight to the front line. The men, women and children are all doing their best. They are innocent, they had this forced upon them. They woke up one day and were under attack.
“While I was out there, I met a lad in his 20s. He moved to America when he was nine, finished university and, when the war started, said, ‘I’m going home’, and fought for his country. So coming home, you have a lot of gratitude for what’s around you. You come home and it’s safe and quiet.”
“It’s surreal standing in a burial ground for a war that is still going on. In the year I’ve been away, it’s grown by a third and it is such a shame that people are forgetting about this war,” he explained.
Ryan hopes to continue supporting Driving Ukraine with a third convoy later this year and is already considering unconventional ways to collect donations. He told The News he would like to start collecting discarded vapes so the lithium batteries can be repurposed into battery packs for soldiers.
He said: “We traded up from a paperclip to get a 4x4. It took a lot of Facebook ads saying it wasn’t a scam. We went from a paperclip to some silver, then to a couple of nice watches. They were worth around £350, so we traded them for a motorcycle that had a few problems.
“We spent a couple of days at my mate’s workshop rebuilding it, then traded that for an iPad and eventually got a Land Rover Discovery.”
Driving Ukraine delivers vehicles and supplies to Ukraine to support people on the front line. Since launching in March 2022, more 1,400 volunteers from across the globe have work joined the cause.