This is a story I would like to share with you. I am a farmer from North-West of Ukraine with 2500 acres of arable land. It`s a family-run business raising mostly corn, soybeans, sunflowers, rapeseeds and winter wheat. Personally, I am in charge of agronomy, farm inputs and sales. This year, I spent most of time in a tractor doing spring tillage, fertilizer applications and spraying because five out of six of my employees were immediately called to the Army once the russian aggression started on February, 24th. There were just two of us left to do all in-season farming job.
My wife and 8-year son fled to Germany to our relatives, then they moved to Portugal. Now, they are staying in Liverpool under Home for Ukraine Scheme. There, my son enjoys going to the school while my wife entered the College to study for a teacher assistant. Now, I wish to say that being a father and a husband I feel endlessly grateful to the people of the UK and your Government for all the support that they have given to Ukrainians at the hardest ever time in our history! And certainly the overall success of Ukrainian counteroffensive couldn`t be possible without a clear stance of the UK Government to support Ukraine at the international level. As you probably know, Boris Johnson recently has been granted the status of honorable citizen of Kyiv!
When my corn harvest was 1/3 done the winter suddenly came with lots of snow. And we stopped. But it was a perfect time for me to go to the UK for a pickup truck for Ukrainian Army. So, I took a permit to leave the country and made a journey to the UK to purchase a vehicle. Quite a long but exciting trip, I should say. A bus from Rivne to Warsaw went broke, I missed the flight to Liverpool and had to wait 12 hours for the next flight to London. Then there was the overnight bus to Liverpool. But, I have been rewarded since I saw my family. I never saw my son so happy before. He had so much to tell me since 9 months after the war separated us.
But, the key mission was to find a good vehicle for my fellows from the special task force squad. We spent four days visiting different places and sellers across the UK. There's no big surprise, that the best option was found at the farm from North Wales! Gary raises sheep at his farm. We quickly liked each other and his car was obviously the best among other options. Moreover, his Mitsubishi L200 is in rather unique "Animal" trim which is 34 HP more power than the standard version. He made a discount on price and changed the oil and filters for free given the long journey to Ukraine. That's his personal input into Ukrainian victory that I really appreciate!
My wife arranged the collection of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid with the school where my son studies. Mr. Thompson, the head teacher of the school made a lot of personal effort to make it happen. So, a truck was fully loaded with the humanitarian stuff. Again, that tells a lot about your great nation!
Then, it was the 1600 miles trip back home. First, I had to get used quickly to driving right hand drive car on the "wrong" side of the road... Then, it was a ferry ride across The Strait of Dover. France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland. In Lower Saxonia (Germany) I made a stop to purchase two diesel generators which are highly needed by the Army at the frontline. Then it was a 7-hour challenge to get through the Polish - Ukrainian border with all the hassle with paperwork. It took me two and a half days to get back home. Now, the "Animal" is waiting for some spare parts that need to be replaced in suspension before going to the East.
By the end of this week, I am planning to drive it up to the frontline and pass it to the squad which is currently fighting at the middle of hell not far from Bakhmut. That's going to be the hardest part of the whole trip. But, I'll make it. We have no other choice.
This pickup truck will be used to deliver the squad to the mission, or to mount high-caliber machine gun on its bed, to evacuate wounded and killed from the battleground... I feel like it's going to be one of the best investments I ever made - £6000 spent on the vehicle (including the cost of delivery and repairs) will save the lives of Ukrainian heroes and will enable them to destroy a couple of russian tanks each worth a $1 million at least!
This story became possible because of the fundraising among my fellow farmers from the US and even from Kazakhstan (!). Hopefully, upon the successful delivery of this truck to the East, I am going to raise funds for the next one. Unfortunately, the lifetime of vehicles at war is rather short…
Here`s my Facebook account if you wish to learn more - https://www.facebook.com/dlsergiyenko. It`s in Ukrainian, but there should be the automatic translation feature enabled.
To be continued...
My wife and 8-year son fled to Germany to our relatives, then they moved to Portugal. Now, they are staying in Liverpool under Home for Ukraine Scheme. There, my son enjoys going to the school while my wife entered the College to study for a teacher assistant. Now, I wish to say that being a father and a husband I feel endlessly grateful to the people of the UK and your Government for all the support that they have given to Ukrainians at the hardest ever time in our history! And certainly the overall success of Ukrainian counteroffensive couldn`t be possible without a clear stance of the UK Government to support Ukraine at the international level. As you probably know, Boris Johnson recently has been granted the status of honorable citizen of Kyiv!
When my corn harvest was 1/3 done the winter suddenly came with lots of snow. And we stopped. But it was a perfect time for me to go to the UK for a pickup truck for Ukrainian Army. So, I took a permit to leave the country and made a journey to the UK to purchase a vehicle. Quite a long but exciting trip, I should say. A bus from Rivne to Warsaw went broke, I missed the flight to Liverpool and had to wait 12 hours for the next flight to London. Then there was the overnight bus to Liverpool. But, I have been rewarded since I saw my family. I never saw my son so happy before. He had so much to tell me since 9 months after the war separated us.
But, the key mission was to find a good vehicle for my fellows from the special task force squad. We spent four days visiting different places and sellers across the UK. There's no big surprise, that the best option was found at the farm from North Wales! Gary raises sheep at his farm. We quickly liked each other and his car was obviously the best among other options. Moreover, his Mitsubishi L200 is in rather unique "Animal" trim which is 34 HP more power than the standard version. He made a discount on price and changed the oil and filters for free given the long journey to Ukraine. That's his personal input into Ukrainian victory that I really appreciate!
My wife arranged the collection of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid with the school where my son studies. Mr. Thompson, the head teacher of the school made a lot of personal effort to make it happen. So, a truck was fully loaded with the humanitarian stuff. Again, that tells a lot about your great nation!
Then, it was the 1600 miles trip back home. First, I had to get used quickly to driving right hand drive car on the "wrong" side of the road
... Then, it was a ferry ride across The Strait of Dover. France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland. In Lower Saxonia (Germany) I made a stop to purchase two diesel generators which are highly needed by the Army at the frontline. Then it was a 7-hour challenge to get through the Polish - Ukrainian border with all the hassle with paperwork. It took me two and a half days to get back home. Now, the "Animal" is waiting for some spare parts that need to be replaced in suspension before going to the East.By the end of this week, I am planning to drive it up to the frontline and pass it to the squad which is currently fighting at the middle of hell not far from Bakhmut. That's going to be the hardest part of the whole trip. But, I'll make it. We have no other choice.
This pickup truck will be used to deliver the squad to the mission, or to mount high-caliber machine gun on its bed, to evacuate wounded and killed from the battleground... I feel like it's going to be one of the best investments I ever made - £6000 spent on the vehicle (including the cost of delivery and repairs) will save the lives of Ukrainian heroes and will enable them to destroy a couple of russian tanks each worth a $1 million at least!
This story became possible because of the fundraising among my fellow farmers from the US and even from Kazakhstan (!). Hopefully, upon the successful delivery of this truck to the East, I am going to raise funds for the next one. Unfortunately, the lifetime of vehicles at war is rather short…
Here`s my Facebook account if you wish to learn more - https://www.facebook.com/dlsergiyenko. It`s in Ukrainian, but there should be the automatic translation feature enabled.
To be continued...
Attachments
-
IMG_20221117_141456531(full).jpg -
IMG_20221118_004912144_HDR(full).jpg -
IMG_20221118_114606579(full).jpg -
IMG_20221119_082903822_HDR(full).jpg -
IMG_20221119_124052041_HDR(full).jpg -
IMG_20221120_044210886(full).jpg -
IMG_20221120_164111735_HDR(full).jpg -
IMG_20221122_110633671_HDR(full).jpg -
IMG-b25740c861c64f16b3dccc92e1a2f387-V(full).jpg -
IMG-df985e0bf31e8fa353610c488fd9a485-V(full).jpg
