Run 33 – February 2025

Run 33 was another run by the Brass Band Aid for Ukraine team with Andy & Tony. Andy went straight from a band rehearsal to pick up Tony and head to Dover for the 0200 ferry to Dunkirk.

Prior to the run, we had a meet with the wonderful folks at Medi Tech Trust in Hailsham to pick up medical aid.

Things were going well until we reached the security check! They weren’t happy we had a spare diesel can on board and so we had to exit the port and try and get rid of it! It’s surprisingly hard to give away 20 litres of Diesel though but we found a guy at a local garage who was stunned but delighted to take it! We made it back through to be the last vehicle on the boat!

Things were going well with a smooth run through France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. Then in Poland, the van started making a lot of noise which Tony diagnosed as a wheel bearing issue. It wasn’t possible to get the van to Ukraine, where we would have had help, and as luck would have it, were not far from a Polish town that had a lot of workshops in the same street, including a Ford dealer. We are also grateful for the back up help offered by “Irish Dave” which in the end we didn’t need but was comforting to know it was there.

The guys at the workshop were awesome but we had to sleep in the van outside their door until they opened at 0800! And it was very cold! But 3 hours later, we were back on the road with new bearings on both front wheels.

Then it was non stop to Kropyvnytskyi to meet our good friend Anton. We had a number of activities planned whilst here: Delivery to the Orphanage, Delivery to the Air Defence guys and offloading some aid that Mike will pick up on his way through the following week. That aid will go to Zaporizhzhia).

Our first stop was at the Air Defence location where we delivered various items including Android tablets and reinforced plastic mats which were donated by Tony. These will help them a lot around the site and we will have more on the next trip.

Anton kindly made this short compilation video of our visit.

The commander kindly presented Andy with his unit flag and patches for Andy & Tony.

Sadly, due to a virus, we couldn’t meet the kids or staff at the Orphanage but were at least able to deliver:

Whilst there, we also had an update on Andy’s old van:

No visit to Krop is complete without an evening out with Anton! This time, we were joined by his girlfriend and children in a superb Pizza place. Tony took no prisoners on the table football though despite the young age of his competitor!

Sadly we were unable to visit Taras the Priest on this run but were at least able to send a couple of packages of aid donated by Brass Band Aid supporters for the folks in the hospital in Zhashkiv.

We also had some used vapes for our good friend “Malik” which we left in Krop for Mike to deliver the following week:

Prior to departing for Odesa, the Air Defence Commander presented us with the flag.

The drive to Odesa from Krop is one of the shorter legs of our journey so we enjoyed a leisurely drive down. It was very noticeable around the approaches to Odesa that defensive positions were being improved, Sadly, one thing Tony didn’t spot was the policeman with a speed camera!
Once in Odesa, we were again staying in the apartment in the City centre – a lot of air raid alarms during our stay but each one of short duration – when Russian planes or drones take off, they don’t always immediately know the destination. Sadly, as I write this, we are reading about an attack on the children’s hospital in Odesa – most likely one of the locations some of our aid went to.

The following morning, it was off to meet the folks at “I Will Help” to deliver the aid we had on board for them.

Speech in Ukrainian by the head of the “I Will Help” prior to the aid being taken onwards to Kherson area:

With all aid now offloaded, it was back to the apartment. The following day, Tony had to deal with the courts relating to the accident on our previous run – we are going to open an account for him to make things easier! :). Andy went back to the I Will Help HQ and then went with them to the Ukrainian Cathedral to attend an awards presentation to the leaders of the main charities in Odesa region.

Outside of the Cathedral is a tribute to the fallen now a common site in all Ukrainian towns and cities. Reading through the ages of these heroes, many are as young as 19 years old – a tragic waste of life.

The following day, Andy & Tony were invited to assist in aid distribution at a church in the City centre. This involved also being there for the service that morning. Afterwards, we set up shop outside and a stream of refugees passed us by, collecting a bag of hygiene items on their way to a secondary food distribution point being run by the Church.

Later in the day, Andy returned to their HQ to collect some certificates of appreciation for key donors and for the presentation of our official volunteer passes!

The team here have a great video guy who produced this summary video of our visit:

Our work in Odesa being over, it was time to head home. This time, we were trying a new route back via Romania, Hungary & Austria – the reason for this was that our Odesa hosts had arranged that we could take some items back to the UK to sell on behalf of military units. However, that deal fell through at the last minute and sadly led to a 4-5 hour delay in getting across the border so we didn’t benefit from seeing Romania during daylight. This crossing also involved a ferry crossing of the Danube!

Had we not had the lengthy delay, this route was around the same duration as our normal route home. However, the Romanian element has a lot of mountainous hairpin bends, and I mean a lot! The route also involves country tolls for both Romania and Hungary together with the additional cost of the ferry crossing. But it made a change!

Arriving in Dunkirk for an early morning ferry, Run 33 came to an end.