Making sure Ukraine's plight is still recognised

Former Royal Navy officer, now a humanitarian volunteer, David Pond has just returned from his TiIth mission to Ukraine since the Russian invasion of its neighbour. Working with a trusted Ukrainian network delivering medical equipment, powerbanks, 4x4 vehicles, generators and other aid near the front lines in Knerson and Kharkiv provinces, he says the situation for civilians and soldiers in the war-torn country remains desperate’

TODAY I have been in Kharkiv city, just 20 miles from the Russian border, to deliver another consignment of aid requested by my Ukrainian network and generously funded by people in my local community of south-east Cornwall, including a number of churches.

It has been a very difficult day, as we have operated against a background of constant air warnings and at least 15 missile and glide bomb strikes, which killed seven people and injured more than 40.

I last delivered aid here a year ago and I am shocked by the scale of destruction since then, and by the brutal renewed offensive against the city and its civilians. I arrived after a 2,000-mile drive from my home in Kingsand in a 4x4 vehicle which I then handed over to a group who desperately needed it to get those injured in such attacks to emergency medical centres.