A Ramsgate grandad will be making his 35th trip from the UK to Ukraine to deliver food, hygiene essentials, necessities and an extra load of Christmas gifts for some 300 children this December.
Kevin Cromeeke, 62, has been delivering aid to the people of the war-torn country since the upscaling of Russian aggression in Ukraine in February 2022.
In addition to trips directly from the UK he has undertaken 120 journeys into the country from Poland.
He travels to schools, orphanages, military sites and hospitals as well as villages on the outskirts of under-fire Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Dnipro.
The upcoming trip will be one of his biggest with a one tonne load on his van but also around six to seven tonnes in storage in Ukraine awaiting Kevin’s arrival for distribution.
The aid is vital, particularly during the brutal winter months where temperatures can drop as low as the -30s, but the trips are also costly, meaning Kevin needs help to fund fuel and ferry costs. All other costs will be self-funded.
The dad-of-two said: “A big part of this trip is the children, I’m taking as much as possible to reach the kids and give them a bit of a Christmas. I’m arranging to go to children’s hospitals, orphanages and points where misplaced children are gathered.
“Christmas is a time of year that should be enjoyed by everyone who celebrates this festival. This absolutely includes children who are forced to live in a war zone through no fault of their own.
“I have been very lucky with another organisation I work with which deals mainly with animal aid. I have driven around the north of England collecting animal aid for them and they have an articulated lorry to take pallet loads of my aid to Ukraine and put in storage until I get there.
“This is a massive load, four or five times the amount I normally get out there so it will reach a whole lot more people.
“But there are the logistic costs of the palettes. They are being shipped free to Ukraine but then I have to ship them from west to east Ukraine so we don’t have to keep travelling back to load up the van.”
Kevin is appealing to people to donate what they can to his fundraising page to help with the trip and the £2,500 costs.
He said: “We have an enormous amount of aid so it is help with the costs, even a £2 donation makes a difference.
“We will go to many of the same areas we usually do although there are some small towns and villages we can’t get into because they have been taken over by the Russians but will get to places like Zaporizhzhia and Izyum.”
Kevin and his regular aid trip partner, French counterpart Quentin, plan to leave the first week of December and will be in Ukraine for three to four weeks, covering some 8,000 kilometres.
They travel to outlying villages, many are without electric and running water, to make sure the people there get food, medical supplies and children’s games and sweet packages. They also deliver to hospitals, schools, refugee camps, community centres and the military as servicemen and women are only issued with basics by the government.
Kevin, who has vowed to deliver aid until the war in Ukraine ends, said: “I had planned to get back for Christmas but this is going to be a trip we probably can’t repeat with all this stuff going out. The biggest problem is crossing the border, there is so much paperwork to account for what is collected and exactly where it is going and to who.
“Also, (in winter) it could be -20 or might even be -35. Last year it didn’t go below -23 but we have been there when it is -34 and it’s horrific. You have to take the batteries off the vehicles and put them inside where you are sleeping at night, you can’t leave anything electronic in the vehicles because the cold kills them.”
Find Kevin’s fundraising page by clicking here
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded and occupied parts of Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and instigated Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
