Jackie Robertson (nee Muller) Class of 1988 - Be the difference
Reflections from the Road – Scotland to Ukraine February Convoy
We arrived on the fourth anniversary of the war — great timing, I know. Life moves on and attention shifts elsewhere, but on the ground in Ukraine, where the temperature was sitting at –11°C, the reality hasn’t changed. Demand is growing for simple things like fold-away foil blankets — anything that can help prevent hypothermia on the frontline.
Last week we delivered 17 jeeps, driving more than 2,400 km to western Ukraine. This time the journey took us along the edge of winter across eastern Europe, with an earlier stop in Germany, passing Colditz as the dark nights and long days pushed drivers harder than usual. The vehicles were stuffed to the roof with supplies including medical kits, chest seals, bandages, wheelchairs, camouflage nets and fishing nets. By the time we finished loading, you genuinely couldn’t see out of the back windows.
The border crossing is an education in how to pack a car. You pack and sometimes repack if called upon by border guards on both sides of the Ukrainian–Polish crossing. We made a detour to the outskirts of Lviv for an impromptu drop-off of medical supplies to a Rotarian contact before continuing to Kolomyia, where I handed over the keys to my Freelander. It was received by a rehabilitating soldier on behalf of his unit. These vehicles are vital; they go straight to the frontline where they are used to extract wounded soldiers quickly and get them to safety where nothing else can reach.
At dawn in Kolomyia, the remaining few of us drove back to Lviv to pay our respects at the near-capacity Field of Mars cemetery.
At 9am a loudspeaker crackled, and then the metronome began.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Each second rang out across the street, slow and deliberate, echoing off the buildings. You’ve never heard anything like it. A mechanical heartbeat laid bare for everyone to hear. Cars halted where they stood. Conversations died mid-sentence. People stopped on the pavement, heads bowed, hands still. For sixty seconds the whole street seemed to hold its breath as the ticking counted the minute aloud. Relentless and hollow, until the final second fell and Lviv slowly remembered how to move again.
“Thank you” feels like a very small phrase, but I’m deeply grateful to everyone helping me get closer to our first fundraising target. Every donation helps keep these life-saving vehicles and supplies moving to where they’re needed most. The link to donate is https://bit.ly/4o4cWmz
If you can donate, thank you. If you can’t, please consider sharing the convoy updates — it really does help keep the wheels turning.
This haul is a long and heavy one, but as long as I can, I will keep going.
The next convoy sets off on 23 April.
Reflections from the Road – Scotland to Ukraine December Convoy
4th Dec - was a day of moving convoy vehicles into position, collecting Freelanders, Toyota Hi-lux, Pathfinders, Ford Rangers, Isuzus and Mitsubishis parked up all over Edinburgh, wherever secure free parking allowed in preparation for departure the following day. These vehicles have seen a lifetime of use already with an 'eau de farm' aroma, I had 3 dead cheese plants in the back to dispose of, most have been moving farm kit, dogs, seen lambing seasons and many pot holes in their lifetime but not as much as they will see in a weeks time. The vehicles are purchased at auction, some donated and some privately purchased but they are all 4 x 4, drivable (questionable!) and will save many lives in the months to come.
5th Dec - Rendevouz at our departure point a shopping centre in Edinburgh. Here the team meet up after weeks of prep, old friends from previous convoys from all over the world, US, France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine. Everyone has flown, trained, bussed and driven to get to Cameron Toll for 10am - its a good feeling to get the old team back together and meet new faces. It will be a long snowy drive, dark nights and 2,500 km ahead of us in hand luggage only, made for slick travel back from Ukraine where the air space remains firmly closed. Cars are topped up with oil, water, the convoy decals are added to the vehicles and the first fuel up of many, followed by a sobering few words from the Ukranian Ambassador wishing all a safe passage to his motherland. Cars are turned over, we stay connected via Whats app and set Hull Ferry terminal as our first RV. Tomorrow we will wake up in Rotterdam, to bring the 650th 4 x 4 to Ukraine.
6th Dec - The ferry doors drop down, it was a rolling sea and we were delayed by 4 hours avoiding an incoming weather front. With not much sleep behind us due to weather onboard we are already on the backfoot. Our next destination is Cottbus on the German border between Poland and Germany and we have just had to scratch getting dinner in Cottbus as we won't arrive until 11pm earliest. 8 hours driving ahead of us and for some the first time driving on the right. If you have ever driven off the Hull ferry to Rotterdam solo you'll know you turn left and then you hit your first roundabout within 4 minutes - a baptism of fire. Cars behind you, cars in front of you and throw in a right hand drive vehicle on the right hand side of the road, you've got it all going on. You need a giraffes neck to overtake but you soon settle in. The drive is long, a total fuel fill up cost is about £400 plus per vehicle in a big old diesel 4 x 4 and the filling stations culinary offerings stretch to hot dogs and hot dogs with coffee. The mood is buoyant and the roads so far are great - must be the free speed in Germany - even if my playlist is a bit questionable.
7th Dec - early rise in Cottbus and we are across the border into Poland within the hour. Here the Policja love us, I think we contribute to the local economy en masse, Whats App messages and calls flavour the day with picture pop ups of various blue lights in the rear view mirrors, speed, overtaking where they shouldn't be, forgotten to put headlights on, vehicle doc checks but nothing that can't be sorted out. These are peppered with vehicle warning lights popping up for brake fluid needing refilled, water low, steering fluid, last trip my vacuum assist brakes went, dashboards light up constantly like a Christmas tree - well it is the Xmas convoy technically! The chat is good, random Whats apps with 'I'm at the next service station where are you?, fancy a coffee? any food recommendations between here and the Ukranian Border? and the general silliness of 20 plus vehicles travelling 8 hours in the same direction, all at different points on the map at any given time. We move as a convoy, travel independently but support each other fully along the way, with a low loader of two Ukranians that can fix anything, anywhere, with nothing. Destination reached we pull in for the night on the Polish border approx 15 miles from Ukraine after a very long drive.
8th Dec - 5am rise and on the road by 6am to hit the Ukranian border early. Its a lottery how long crossing from Poland to Ukraine takes. We draw up as a full convoy at the Polish border and "wait out". Sometimes they let you through inside a few hours, this time we weren't so lucky. 7 hours wait to cross check all the aid and VIN numbers matched our papers. It took 3 hours to get through the Polish border checkpoint and the gap between Poland and Ukraine is only two car lengths and two barriers long. It took another 4 hours for the Ukranian border force to do exactly the same all over again. It's a waiting game and you just need to be patient, stay inside your vehicle and smile. It helps if you have a large bag of Haribos. Finally the barrier goes up and we are into Ukraine. The roads give it away immediately, here the country needs all its resources for military effort. The drive is peppered with fields of dried out brown sunflower heads, golden domed churches, women in head squares, tractors, military posters, beautiful forests, more tractors and massive twig structures balancing high up in the pylons - storks nests. Reaching Ukraine feels so heart-warming I feel its a bit like coming home now, this is my 4th convoy and each time it gets further under your feathers. We make for Kolomyia Town square. Each drive has always had hick ups that mean late or delayed arrivals or departures especially with old 4 x 4's that have driven more in 4 days than they have in a long time, you just need to roll with it and this was the first drive we made it to the town square where the welcome is special. Usually we bowl in the door of our accommodation heading straight to dinner without time to take off our jackets. The military were there to greet us with a cold beer and lots of high fives and bear hugs.
9th Dec - The night sky in Kolomyia is thankfully peaceful having spent the evening with the Ukrainian military who were receiving the vehicles. We see friendly old faces, solid good friends we have made who are back from the frontline, some on leave, some having medical attention some preparing to go back out. There's an all round sense of relief they are alive and kicking back. Today we go to the factory to see the rebuilds being done on earlier vehicles we have driven out that have returned from the front line, one vehicle has been seriously shot out by a drone riddled with holes like a sieve. The occupants did not make it but the vehicle has done multiple extractions saving many lives in its lifetime of use and is needed for parts. Nothing goes to waste. People often ask why we don't just take vehicles from Europe but drive them all the way from the UK and the answer is simple. The right hand drive vehicles serve as a decoy as the military put a dummy in the passenger seat and this allows a driver to extract wounded many times as the Russians aim for the left. We leave Kolomyia by noon and travel by minibus to Lviv 4 hours later we get our first bath of the trip - it feels like pure luxury. The air raid apps are active on our phones, Lviv is no less target just now. Sandbags cover street shop windows, sculptures have scaffolding around them with church windows boarded up to protect their stained glass. Restaurants have generators humming on every street and our hotel has a very comfortable bomb shelter in the basement converted from a wine cellar. Ukraine have been living with the threat of war night and day for 4 years and their resilience and fortitude is truly humbling. The last of the vehicles are dropped in Lviv and we head out for the evening fuelling up on Borscht (Beetroot Soup) and Ukrainian food. The curfew kicks in at midnight and we head back before lockdown. Military law dictates you cannot be out between midnight and 5 am and at 9am every day we observe the 1 minute silence with the rest of Ukraine.
10th Dec - Each drive we stop to pay our respects at the Field of Mars cemetery a community parkland that has ben given over to the final resting place for fallen soldiers returning home to Lviv. It is hard to convey what its like to visit. Row upon row of soldiers, mostly male, mostly young with ages between 19 and 65. Every time I go, the cemetery just keeps growing. The graves are covered with Ukranian flags, there are over 2000 buried here and they are running out of burial room. Graves are adorned with coloured photographs of handsome young lads in civilian and military clothing. The graves have favourite sweets on them, personal treasures that give a snapshot of young life cut short. While we pay our respects new graves are being dug up at the top. It is relentless. This graveyard is one of hundreds, in cities, towns and villages we see as we drive through Western Ukraine. When a fallen hero is taken home the traffic always slows, our convoy falls back as nothing and no-one overtakes a funeral procession here, no bus, no bicycle, no - one and the overtaking lane stays silent. All accompany the procession as it carves its way through the villages where glass candles burn quietly on the pavements and everyone takes a knee while it passes a heroes welcome home until finally it peels off into the church and the pace of traffic resumes. Our convoy then makes its way by bus and train to the Medyka border between Ukraine and Poland. Its a foot crossing with a single turn-style where all arrivals and departures are processed one by one. Its like the 1950s, elderly women selling single cigarettes and bottles of whisky under their coats as you leave. Using up and giving away any of your last hyrvinia as you can't exchange it anywhere but Ukraine. There's a short walk back across no man's land with 15 foot barbed wire topped fences until you reach the mirror image turnstyles at the Polish side. The turnstyles spit you out into Poland and then its like a scene from Race across the World, as the great and the good go on an international scramble to get buses, cab shares, trains for the 2.5 hours to Krakow airport - the porthole back home.
The next drive to Ukraine departs 20th Feb this will be my 5th self funded run in 12 months. I have committed to another 5 convoys this year delivering 5 more 4 x 4's and to deliver this I need help to raise £6000. It is approx 2,400 km per run to deliver life-saving vehicles and aid to those who need it most - it is raw, humbling, and profoundly life-changing. Each vehicle helps extract wounded to medical safety — and each one can save up to 50 lives but to do it, I do need your help to get across the line. Thank you so much for stepping up and standing together.
This saves lives. The link to donate is https://bit.ly/4o4cWmz
Be the difference. Jackie
