Pair need medical supplies and equipment for Ukraine

TWO people from Henley are collecting medical supplies and 4x4 vehicles to help the Ukrainian war effort.

Liz Ledaca and David Eggleton have teamed up with Paul Liczbinski, from Reading, to supply aid as well as Land-Rovers to be repurposed as ambulances.

It follows a mission in April where Mr Liczbinski and three other former military men drove to the Polish border with Ukraine with medical equipment and tourniquets which had been donated by hospitals and pharmacies.

They spent four-and-a-half days driving 2,886 miles there and back with little sleep and paid for their own petrol.

Mr Liczbinski, who was in the military for 29 years, said: “It’s difficult now to get help with donations. When the invasion started it was news and everyone wanted to help and now it’s old news and some people even go, ‘Oh, that’s still going on?’

“People on eBay have even upped the prices for protective army equipment because they’re taking advantage of the situation. I find that unbelievable.”

He added: “The Russians are not just fighting — it’s systematic extermination. They aren’t aiming bombs, they are just sending them anywhere. It’s what they did in Syria.” Mrs Ledaca, who organised a free information event in Henley about helping Ukrainian refugees in March, connected with Ukrainian voluntary defender Roman Shulyar through LinkedIn.

She was sent photos of a campervan that had been repurposed as an ambulance and a soldier using a bicycle to get to the front line.

Mr Shulyar will collect the supplies and help distribute them to the front line.

Mrs Ledaca, of Park Road, said: “It’s humbling because we’re just sitting here drinking coffee in safety while they are there dying.

“People here are so complacent and they’re not helping. Individuals have done one-off trips but we need to make it sustainable and regular. We have such a short window to get funds in — they are desperate and so are we. If that soldier on the bicycle goes to the front line again without the proper protection or vehicle, who knows if he’ll make it.”

Mr Shulyar has also appealed for roll-up stretchers, military first aid kits, tourniquets, personal field dressings, broad-spectrum antibiotics, pain relief pens, binoculars and VHF radios.

Mrs Ledaca said he had been in tears on the phone to the Brits apologising for asking so much.

He says that many injured soldiers are left to die as there isn’t the equipment to help them.

Mr Shulyar. who is married with a small child, left his job as a lawyer to fight in the war before it became compulsory for men below 60 to fight. He has teamed up with Mariia Taras, who was chief executive of the law firm he worked for and is now co-ordinating the logistics of the aid effort.

Mrs Ledaca said: “I can’t wait to be in Kyiv with Roman and Mariia and their families, in safety, to celebrate.”

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