Polish community provide ambulances for Ukraine

The Polish community in a Warwickshire town is at the forefront of delivering humanitarian aid from the county to people living in Ukraine.

The latest decomissioned ambulance, full of aid to support victims of the Russia-Ukraine war, set off from Royal Leamington Spa on Monday morning.

Since the conflict began, more than 40 vehicles have made the three-day trip to Leżajsk on the Poland/Ukraine border, along with 250 tonnes of aid so far.

Each ambulance costs between £7,000-£8,000 to purchase, plus the cost of sorting the vehicles for the trip across Europe.

Dawid Kozlowski, from Royal Leamington Spa's Polish Centre, said: "We are very proud of what we have achieved for such a small organisation and it says a lot about our community."

Mr Kozlowski works for LKQ Euro Car Parts, which has provided major financial backing for the aid missions, and Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western has taken part in two of the recent trips.

Over the duration of the war, the Leamington group has even delivered six washing machines to a group of nuns supporting displaced people.

"It's not the kind of thing you think about, but these are the problems they have," said Mr Kozlowski.

"We see more and more people from the community wanting to get involved. As we said from day one, it's not just a Polish project.

"We're now at a stage where most of our volunteers are not Polish people and that's great to see."

The latest trip will also deliver mobility aids to Ukraine for soldiers who have lost limbs.

The Leamington organisation also helped to fund a 14-year-old boy's eye surgery.

"When we were arranging to take ambulance number one into Ukraine, we arranged for Ignit and his mum to come through the border and meet us," said Mr Kozlowski.

"He came to me and said 'thank you for giving me a second life' and you realise a single person can make a difference to another person's life."

Royal Leamington Spa's mayor, Judith Clarke, attended an event at the Polish Centre earlier this year and said she "was so impressed with what they were doing".

"I was very, very humbled actually to meet these people," she said.

She talked to her husband Steve after the event and he decided to sign up as a driver for the trip this week with his lifelong friend Kaz Librowski, whose parents are Polish, and another friend Paul Elsden.

"I'm very proud that Steve has taken up this challenge to help the people in Ukraine," she said.

"Lots of people in Leamington took in Ukrainian refugees and that was a sign of what a wonderful commmunity we are and, all over Warwickshire, people are helping."

The mayor's consort added: "I've known about this operation for quite a while now, then Judith went to the event at the Polish Centre, told me about it and I thought 'I'd like to do that sometime'.

"I'm strongly motivated by anything that stops Putin. I don't think we can allow an armed invasion to succeed.

"All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing, so at least we are doing something.

"It helps and I'm sure the Ukrainians appreciate it."

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.