Aid reaches front-line village

GIFTS FROM PLYMOUTH ARE TAKEN TO UKRAINE

- ANDY PHILLIPS

SHOEBOXES donated by residents on both sides of the Tamar Bridge and collected in Plymouth have been given to children in a Ukrainian village which was hit by a Russian air strike last month.

The village of Hroza, near the city of Kupiansk, in Kharkiv province, was the site of one of the worst atrocities since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A café was hit by a missile on October 5, killing more than 50 people. Reports in the aftermath suggested that almost every family in the village was affected in some way by the blast, which made international headlines.

Now, children and residents still living in the village in north-east Ukraine have been offered some cheer thanks to donations of warm clothing, food, medicines and Christmas shoeboxes which were taken out from Plymouth and delivered onwards by non-combatant volunteer soldiers.

The shoeboxes were part of a convoy of aid driven across Europe by Andreas Evangelou, a Plymouth businessman who has now made eight such trips, and Maksym Litvinov, a Ukrainian who is now living in the city.

Mr Litvinov is originally from the city of Kharkiv, not far from the front line of clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces, and he still has contacts in the Ukrainian military.