Copyright © 2021 Euromaidanpress.com

The work of Euromaidan Press is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation

When referencing our materials, please include an active hyperlink to the Euromaidan Press material and a maximum 500-character extract of the story. To reprint anything longer, written permission must be acquired from [email protected].

Privacy and Cookie Policies.

British Ukrainians crowdsource three cars, send to Ukraine’s frontlines

British Ukrainians crowdsource three cars, send to Ukraine’s frontlines

London Euromaidan is sending 3 cars (2 SUVs and 1 Pick-up), protective equipment and medicine to Ukrainian soldiers on the front defending their country against Russian aggression. The vehicles were blessed in a ceremony at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London by the Ukrainian Eparchial Bishop, the Rt Revd Hlib Lonchyna and by Fr. Evhen at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in London.

All three cars, and the supplies and equipment which fill them, have been bought with the donations raised by London Euromaidan at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London (22 Binney Street, London W1K 5BQ), Ukrainian Orthodox Church in London (1a Newton Avenue, London W3 8AJ), at London Euromaidan’s collection point at the Ukrainian Social Club (154 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 4UH) and through London Eurmaidan’s website www.saveukraine.co.uk .

The vehicles were blessed at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London by his Excellency Bishop Hlib on the 22nd of March in an emotional ceremony attended by around 1000 people.

After the ceremony the spokesman of London Euromaidan Stepan Shakhno said:

“Our sincere gratitude to all those who contributed with their generous donations, which has enabled us to buy these vehicles for the Ukrainian soldiers. We know that God will protect our soldiers in the war against Russian aggression, and we pray that our soldiers will soon come home alive, in one piece and victorious. We are all deeply grateful to the brave Ukrainian heroes who are risking their lives defending Ukraine and peace and stability for all of Europe.”

London Euromaidan spokesperson welcomed the recently announced deployment of 75 British military personnel for training purposes to Ukraine is a step in the right  direction. But training alone will not be enough: “It is just wrong that our country has to rely on what little aid we can supply. We urge the UK government to supply the necessary equipment and weapons in order to increase Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against the Russian attack.”

You could close this page. Or you could join our community and help us produce more materials like this.  We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society. A little bit goes a long way: for as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support. Become a Patron!

To suggest a correction or clarification, write to us here

You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter

Please leave your suggestions or corrections here


    Related Posts

    February 7: The West should not rule out military resolution of the conflict in Ukraine

    February 7 – 5 Ukrainian military were killed and 26 injured in the conflict area in Donbas in the last 24 hours, – informedVolodymyr Polevyi, deputy head of the Information Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

    February 7 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during Munich Security Conference. NATO Secretary General has said that the alliance is strengthening collective security system as well as spoke about providing political and practical support to Ukraine on behalf of NATO.

    February 7 – The West should not rule out military resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, – said on Saturday in MunichSupreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, Gen. Philip Breedlove, writes Spiegel Online. "We are not talking about sending troops to Ukraine," – said Breedlove. In addition, he called Vladimir Putin's proposals on the resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine "totally unacceptable".

    February 7 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has held tripartite talks with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Vice President Joe Biden – "The parties have coordinated further steps and stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire as well as continued dialogue on the implementation of all provisions of the Minsk agreements".

    February 7 – Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has publicized intercepted conversations, which suggest that Russian military are provoking clashes between the ATO forces and militants of "People's Republic of Donetsk". They must be getting new "arguments" ready for Putin's negotiations.

    February 7 – Armed Forces and the National Guards of Ukraine have received new military equipment – a modernized armored vehicle "Spartan", equipped with heavy machine gun and "Stugna" missiles.

    February 7 – Ukraine is ready to support ceasefire at any time, – stated the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in his comments to journalists at Munich Security Conference. Whereas the issues of state's federal structure or the autonomy of certain regions (Putin's wishes), may only be decided at a national referendum, not in Moscow or Berlin. All is needed for peace in Donbas is closed borders with Russian Federation and withdrawal of Russian troops, not peacekeeping forces. In his speech at Munich Security Conference, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko presented the passports and military service cards of Russian soldiers who "must have gotten lost in Ukraine" and were detained by Ukrainian military.

    Near Debaltseve after attack Russian terrorists appeared "cemetery" Russian tanks (video).

    Poroshenko in Munich (20 min)

    By Taras Kuzio

    Arm Ukraine and force Putin back to the negotiating table

    Russia, despite its repeated denials, is sending large quantities of military equipment to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine along with 9,000 of its troops. Movement of Russian forces, including the Pantsir-S1 missile system, are being tracked by think tanks and western intelligence agencies. Only Russian professional (not conscript) troops and intelligence officers can operate highly sophisticated Russian military equipment – not irregular separatist forces.

    Respected Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer has concluded that the aim of Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, is to destroy Ukraine's independence by installing a satrap in Kiev similar to Chechen warlord Razman Kadyrov, thereby ending Kiev's goal of integration into Europe.

    Putin reportedly told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Kiev should deal with the separatists by buying them off with autonomy and money as he had in Chechnya, which to her was unacceptable.

    Russia and its separatist proxies have never abided by the September Minsk peace accords and last month tore them up and demand a new agreement that would lend legitimacy to their territorial gains. Military assaults have claimed a growing number of civilian lives, including 40 in rocket attacks on the port city of Mariupol and a Luhansk hospital, with the total number of civilians killed rising to 5, 500, according to the UN. Growing numbers of combatants continue to die on both sides, as illustrated by these gruesome photos of a column of 16 Russian and separatist tanks that was destroyed yesterday.

    In the face of the new Russian-backed offensive, pressure on US President Barack Obama to send defensive military equipment to Ukraine is becoming ever more intense. The release of a report for the Atlantic Council of the US by eight US ambassadors calling for military assistance was published along with a crescendo of commentaries in The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times (here, here andhere), The Wall Street Journal (here and here), The Washington Post, The New York Times, The American Interest, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times and Spiegel Online.

    This chorus of support was backed by influential former US National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. A bipartisan group led by Republican and Democratic Senators Rob Portman and Dick Durbin called for military assistance to Ukraine "to defend its sovereign borders against escalating Russian aggression".

    The New York Times reported that the US was considering supplying arms to Ukraine, something reportedly confirmed by Douglas Lute, the US Ambassador to Nato. Ashton Carter, President Obama's choice to become his fourth Defence Secretary, said three days later he was "very much inclined" to provide arms to Ukraine to fight Russian-backed separatists.

    Ukraine has been seeking western weapons since the summer of last year but so far has received only non-lethal equipment such as winter clothing, bullet proof vests and night vision goggles. The US did send 20 light counter-mortar radars late last year and, with two-decades of cooperation in Nato's Partnership for Peace programme, is beginning to train four companies of Ukraine's National Guard.

    Arguments against the supply of weapons, the Wall Street Journal wrote, "look increasingly naïve". Nevertheless, Canadian commentators have pointed to Ukrainian corruption (see here and here) and the presence of "UkrainianNazis" as a way perhaps to justify the Stephen Harper government's decision not to providie military support. High levels of corruption never stopped the supply of Canadian military equipment and special force trainers to Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although Putin and the Russian media have repeatedly raised accusations of"fascism" in Ukraine, it is the Russian (rather than the Ukrainian) regime that more closely resembles the political science definition of "fascism".

    Nato will not send weapons to Ukraine but the UK, Poland and Canada would follow the US lead. President Obama is fighting against his own Democratic party if he sticks with the position of Chancellor Merkel, who continues to put naïve faith in a peaceful solution.

    Economic sanctions (helped by falling oil prices) have not discouraged Putin's reckless and bloody intervention in eastern Ukraine. Some of those advocating military support to Ukraine believe – as in the 1980s through weapons supplied to the Afghan Mujahedeen – that only a growing number of casualties will force realignment in Russian policy to that of public opinion, two thirds of which is against intervention in eastern Ukraine.

    The Donbas conflict, engineered and sustained by Moscow, is already Europe's worst security challenge since World War II. There have been 40 close military encountersin the air between Russia and the west since the annexation of the Crimea in March last year. Putin believes he is fighting a "Nato legion" through alleged Ukrainian proxies and has always claimed the Euromaidan revolution was a western-backed coup. Russian soldiers dying at the hands of western weapons would return the world to the Cold War of the 1980s, although it remains unclear which US congressman would today step up as the new Charlie Wilson.

    Putin will stop his destabilisation of Ukraine and return to negotiations only when western arms equalise both sides on the battlefield.

    Taras Kuzio is a research associate at the Centre for Political and Regional Studies, Canadian Institute forUkrainian Studies, University of Alberta and non-resident fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Relations, Johns Hopkins University.

    P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.

    March 5: Moscow will not support the mission of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine

    March 5 – 1 Ukrainian military was killed and 1 wounded in Donbas in the last 24 hours, – informed acting spokesman of the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces Vladyslav Seleznyov.

    March 5 – In Crimea, Russian authorities are questioning the participants of the II All-Crimean Conference of the Committee on protecting the rights of Crimean Tatar people, – informed on his Facebook page Committee Chairman and Majlis member, Eskender Bariev.

    March 5 – "Authorities" of the occupied Crimea have refused to investigate the murder of Crimean Tatar Mr.Ametov. They have killed Crimean Tatars in the past and will continue killing them in the future.

    March 5 – Nadiya Savchenko, who was on hunger strike for 83 days, has agreed to stop. "I am learning to change my tactics. Yes, physically I feel lousy, but not bad enough to have to die right now. So for some time I will be drinking broth – if I have to live, I will fly, if I have to die, I will die healthy", – she wrote.

    March 5 – Moscow will not support the mission of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, if such a proposal is submitted to UN Security Council, – said Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov

    March 5 – The number of cases of unjustified detention of citizens of Ukraine has increased in Russia, – statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

    March 5 – "Large numbers" of Russian soldiers are dying in eastern Ukraine, where for almost a year pro-Russian separatists have been fighting against the Ukrainian government, – stated NATO Deputy Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow, reports Agence France Presse.

    March 5 – In Luhansk oblast Ukrainian Armed Forces have withdrawn its rocket and artillery batteries according to Minsk agreements (including multiple rocket launcher systems BM-21 "Grad").

    March 5 – RF President Volodymyr Putin wants to destroy NATO. This was stated by the Commander of U.S. Ground Forces in Europe, General-Lieutenant Ben Hodges, reports The Telegraph. "I am convinced that Putin wants to detroy our alliance, not by attacking it but by splitting it up," he noted. Hodges also commented that Russia may attempt to to destabilize one of the members of NATO by the use of partisans or other forms of 'hybrid war'. He also urged that American tanks be placed in countries along the eastern wing of NATO, in terms of stopping that factor for Putin. Specifically, according to Hodges, he proposed to place tanks in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Rumania, and Bulgaria.

    La Fondation Robert Schuman – Russia, Ukraine and International Law

    P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.