thanks, Scott
Day 4 - afternoon/evening
Then is was onto a suprise visit for us, we dropped in to say hello to one of the fire stations and hand over some safety gear
Was shocked to find out around 250 fire stations have either been destroyed or damage and this one had responded to a number of local missile strikes, can't begin to imagine having you deal with this type of call out
First station member to greet us was this handsome fella, not the dude in the blue shirt but the fire station dog, a Golden Springer spaniel with his summer haricut, what a gorgous dog!
The guys proceeded to pull out all their new trucks to proudly show us, this one was built in 2007 and donated from the UK. The UK fire service has donated a number of trucks, even UK individuals have bought fire trucks and driven them over themselves, which I think is a mega thing to do 😎 Canadian fire fighters have also donated jackets, boots and other safety clothing
The guys were just so genuinely grateful for all the support they're getting from so many countries around the world. You can see why as the above fire engine replaced their late 80's Russian made fire engines. I had to ask, did they really mean these were built in the 40's or 50's but no the one on the right is an 1987 model, the other one 2 or 3 years younger 😲
This was a new ambulance donated from somewhere in the EU, was converted into a breathing tank truck for recharging air bottles with an onboard compressor pump
It replaced this late 80's Russian truck that did the same job 😬 all the redundant fire engines will be sent out to fire stations in other parts of the country that have no or damaged fire trucks. With every new piece of equipment 2 fire stations benefit.
This is a new fire truck built in partnership between Belarus and Ukrainian companies, was quite an impressive bit of equipment
A reminder of Ukraine's Soviet past, actually think both are quite cool, in a retro sort of way 😎
We're now looking into supplying a whole fire station worth of protective clothing so if anyone has any leads on where we could obtain this sort of stuff please let me know and I'll make sure it get to the fire fighters that need it
Then it was back to the hotel for a very late lunch with more vodka and to meet some serious, bad ass dudes
Color scheme on this BMW is the same as the Lviv Resistance flag, kind of shows the depth of pride the people of Lviv have and I also liked the colour combination
For me, meeting and talking with 5 of these guys was the highlight of our trip and easily one of the most humbling experiences I've had.
All volunteers on the frontline, all recovering from injuries from their fighting in Bahkmut, the area of some of the bloodiest battles so far, all desperate to get back to the frontline. One has been hospitalised 3x now and still plans to go back to the frontline as soon as he can
Can't think of words describe that level of bravery but they were some of the nicest guys we've had the pleasure of eating and drinking with
Situation is complicated in Ukraine. the elder of the fighters had a Russian grand-dad that passed away years go because he mentioned standing over his grave asking his grand-dad why are they doing this to us? Also many Russian men have come to live in Ukraine to marry the women as they're far more beautiful than back home. I'm happily married but can see the attraction 😇
All the guys had cool call signs, won't divulge any but one earned his name because he did something with a shoulder mounted missile launcher that it shouldn't have been able to have done ie shot a flying missile down
Humbling part for me was how genuinely, profusely, grateful they were to us, for driving over and the support we delivered. I felt quite embaressed so I just couldn't thank them enough for their service. I know I wouldn't be strong enough mentally to do what they've been doing and not have a lifetime of nightmares after what they've seen.
We asked them what we could do to help them further and the reply upset me a bit, they just want a refridgerated truck as they don't want to leave anyone behind 😟😢
Our 2nd and last night gave us a small taste of what life must be like with the threat of war arriving at your front door. We were woken from our slumber around 2.30am by air raid sirens, then church bells and then barking dogs, coming from all directions aound our hotel 😬
As any war zone newbie did I stood in my bare naked best with the curtains pulled back looking for missile tracers in the night sky. Then realised maybe I should put my pants on, grab some clothes and seek somehwere safe to shelter. As no one was running from their rooms to the basement we just went back to bed and waited for the noise to die down. This happened 3x during the night and in the morning we found out why, the alarm was raised due to the Nova Kakhovka dam bursting
As unpleasant ways of waking up go, I'd put air raid sirens a long way below, waking up from being dead/in a coma and just above waking up by an earthquake. None of which I hope to experience again anytime soon