Leeds aid volunteers witness 'horrors' of war-torn Ukraine

A team of volunteers who made a round trip from Yorkshire to Ukraine to deliver aid said they were shown the "unimaginable horrors" of war.

Yorkshire Aid Convoy took goods including 2,000 laptops to help children learn, with many schools destroyed since Russia invaded in 2022.

Trustee Gary Dooley said it was a "real eye-opener to see how people live under the threat of aerial bombardment".

He said the laptops would make a "huge difference" to the students' lives.

The Leeds-based team of 14 volunteers took seven trucks on the 10-day 5,000-mile (8,046km) round trip, returning to Wetherby on Saturday.

Mr Dooley said: "In the last two years this is our eighth convoy and we have now taken 60 large trucks with humanitarian aid.

"This was our first time to Kyiv and some of the unimaginable horrors we have seen on the news, we saw first hand.

"[We saw] villages where they were completely taken over. It was good to be able to take over some aid that we know will make a huge difference to people's lives."

The team visited places near Kyiv including Moschun and Bucha, where some of the war's most serious abuses are believed to have taken place.

The volunteers met the Ukrainian minister for education as part of a project they have been working on to help children back into learning.

"We have taken 5,000 laptops now," he said.

"They need 100,000 computers this year alone as there are so many children who have nothing, and no way of any kind of education.

"The aim is to keep going, keep getting more IT equipment and more aid over there. They are in desperate need of help, now more than ever."

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