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  • 9 hours ago
Pizza Under Fire
Transcript
00:00:11What is that, is the question?
00:00:13The question is, of all the things you could bring to these pretty devastated and dangerous places, why pizzas?
00:00:23Yeah, why?
00:00:35That looks like two explosions, two big boys, there's two big smoke plumes over there.
00:00:43That explosion coming up on the middle of the dark spring.
00:00:47Third one.
00:00:55Sir, tell me about the history of this road.
00:00:58The highway to hell, this is the road into Hudson, which in 22 after liberation, we'd come out long after
00:01:07dark, every night.
00:01:09There were dead bodies on the road, almost every day.
00:01:19Yeah, it's a nerve-wracking day's work.
00:01:26There's no other way to get there.
00:01:27There's no other way to get there.
00:01:38I'm stressed as fuck, until I get back out through that checkpoint.
00:01:45Reports of explosions in the Ukrainian capital as Vladimir Putin announces a special military assault on Ukraine began with missile
00:01:53attacks.
00:01:54Video of a missile going into a high-rise residential building.
00:01:57Ukraine woke to explosions around the capital.
00:01:59The outskirts of the capital have a major military assault against Ukraine.
00:02:11When you look at guys who have done tours, for example, in Afghanistan and Iraq, not that we're soldiers, but
00:02:17they're pretty screwed up after.
00:02:19And, uh, we've done the equivalent of, like, five tours, almost.
00:02:46I want to go home.
00:02:58It's very difficult knowing that there's hundreds and hundreds of people looking at you, because you're dressed in a stupid
00:03:01skirt, and you have to be smiling all the time.
00:03:04And I'm just trying to get my smile back on.
00:03:31So, we are in our train, raffling across the Ukraine.
00:03:35We've been through Kyiv, and then, uh, halfway over to Kharkiv, which is our destination, where we'll be working.
00:03:42The Russians have come over the border and occupied some of the villages along the top, but that situation's fairly
00:03:47stabilised now.
00:03:49My hope is we'll be able to work through this area, staying 25 kilometres back from the Russian artillery, and
00:03:56down into Zaporizhia, where we'll be based for a week.
00:03:58If the plan holds, which it never does, because the war tends to change everything, we'll then come down to
00:04:04Mikulayev for the last ten days of the month,
00:04:07where we can drive quite long ways each day, through into Kherson or Blas.
00:04:12As Ukraine gets ready to defend, or has been of late, they've been building their defensive lines.
00:04:16Many of the villages that are still free are to the east of those defensive lines, so they feel deeply
00:04:21abandoned and expectant of reoccupation.
00:04:25It's certainly one of the hardest areas, I'd say.
00:04:41It's so strange that you can buy a ticket, as if you're going in-trailing or something, but in reality
00:04:47you're ending up in a war zone.
00:04:53So, Floric, why are you on the train to Kharkiv?
00:04:59Something I've been asking myself for 14 hours.
00:05:05I've done a few bits of volunteering over the past few years, and it's just the one thing that you
00:05:12get so much from.
00:05:15I didn't quite know what we were getting ourselves into, because it's not just us bringing pizza, it gives people
00:05:23an opportunity to connect in a way that's separate from wartime.
00:05:30Here we are, serving these amazing Ukrainian people, here they are coming over the borders, and the pizza oven is
00:05:37in full flow, look at that, new teams just arrived.
00:05:40They came to cook pizzas for hungry Ukrainian refugees, here at the Polish border.
00:05:46It's about minus two degrees and the kickers are running.
00:05:50But a small team from a Scottish charity didn't stop there.
00:05:54They took their pizza ovens, crossed into Ukraine, and just kept on going east, towards the fighting.
00:06:02Jesus Christ.
00:06:06Fucking hell.
00:06:10Following the Ukrainian army to towns recently liberated from the Russians.
00:06:23And into villages that had been razed to the ground and brutalized.
00:06:30Even taken to boats when a destroyed dam made the roads impassable.
00:06:41This is the charity's leader, Tom Hughes.
00:06:45He's been cooking pizzas in Ukraine's frontline villages for two and a half years, with the help of a stream
00:06:52of new volunteers, like Flora and Izzy.
00:06:58To turn apart not to sound naive, because we are naive, we are literally 22.
00:07:03Does your mum know what you're doing?
00:07:05She...
00:07:06She knows where I'm going, she doesn't know what that means, I think.
00:07:10Not to do her a massive disservice, but I don't think she knows...
00:07:15...how the kind of recent offensive that's taken place near Kalki.
00:07:33...so we can do...
00:07:34Oh oh.
00:07:37Oh oh.
00:07:38Oh oh.
00:07:52First time he came this way was in late summer autumn of 22 as he got liberated when the
00:08:00war was still very very visible here everything was blown up and tanks all over the place.
00:08:06Yeah this road is where the eastern advance at the beginning of the war met up with the
00:08:10northern advance all pushing for Hardkiv so this all got occupied and still horrendously
00:08:15mined the villages still lose legs on a weekly basis through this area and as with all of the
00:08:23eastern villages is now living with the fairly real horror and threat of a reoccupation if the
00:08:28front line advances much further.
00:08:34So
00:08:59It's a beautiful July morning and we're on our way out of Kharkiv to cook pizzas in one
00:09:05of the villages that was occupied by the Russians.
00:09:16As we get closer to the fighting the roads are becoming eerily deserted.
00:09:27Stop, stop, stop, stop.
00:09:31Bullet bowls in the walls, blue tarps on the roof, we're in the right place.
00:10:04Tom, we're going to serve here, all right?
00:10:07We're going to serve here, all right?
00:10:13We're going to serve here.
00:10:16We're going to serve here, all right?
00:10:35I've been out here going on nine months I think now.
00:10:39It's a long time.
00:10:41It is.
00:10:41Why have you spent so long here?
00:10:43Because I love what we're doing here, I love this country, and I love this work.
00:10:52It's important that we're here, helping the people out, you know, raising the morale.
00:10:57It's vital.
00:10:58And everybody loves pizza.
00:11:15How hot are you, Rod?
00:11:17No.
00:11:18They just haven't clipped you up, you know.
00:11:24Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
00:11:26Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:11:42What we set out to do was to humanize as opposed to dehumanize.
00:11:49if you see a traditional aid distribution it's a very grim thing and it from my experience tends
00:11:55to really dehumanize people and say here's your package of toothpaste nappies medicaid whatever
00:12:02it is move on through and our purpose was almost the opposite of that was to say
00:12:09you're a human and you matter as much as anyone else we're here in support of you
00:12:16people hear that the west was with ukraine but there's no sign of it on the ground
00:12:21and when a bunch of westerners turn up with what's perceived as a western food product
00:12:27it made a huge difference
00:12:45these are the villages that we've spoken about often that in the trust of where we need to be
00:12:51we have done a lot of the times the cities that are known but we are going to places where
00:12:56there's no
00:12:56aid being delivered no aid organizations go into them so i feel we're hitting the heart of where
00:13:02we need to be to me i call them forgotten villages where they really are forgotten by their own
00:13:08government as well as everyone else and i think we've certainly touching areas that nobody's done
00:13:14but kevin on the way here this morning we saw an awful lot of signs of destruction and uh and
00:13:21war
00:13:22yeah i mean these guys this place was occupied by the russians yeah yes yeah most of these little
00:13:28villages were and it it must be just terrifying for the people that are here
00:13:37for me to go and give a couple of pizzas to all these people that have suffered it's it's it's
00:13:41the
00:13:41least i can do and and it's a bond between us and the ukrainians to let them know that we
00:13:48are here
00:14:06so this is a very chilled out scene seems like the wall is a million miles away
00:14:12yeah that's certainly not um 26 clicks from the river then 389 clicks from the russians um
00:14:21it's about as far as we get close as we get uh this whole oblast is far from peaceful
00:14:26uh it's all had eight months occupation and since then since october 22 it's it's experienced the
00:14:33war every village has heard the war you hear it on a daily basis i'm amazed we haven't had any
00:14:37one today
00:14:39they're tough as fuck these people and they know that a rocket can come in and kill them all and
00:14:44they just carry on i've seen air defense rockets go off to shoot drones that are over our heads
00:14:52and i'm in absolute pieces as any rational person would be uh and the crowds just standing there
00:14:59can i have a can i have five pizzas please they will just made it totally normal
00:15:04like they have a walk in the beach
00:15:04there are no problems that they cannot be used to that they have to yet to talk as
00:15:07a trafficisier to get who wants to stop going on and to get to look at them
00:15:12like you're a lot of us
00:15:13i don't know if we need to walk away and to get to look at them
00:15:18i'm in a fucking way
00:15:18the moment we need to walk away and to look at them
00:15:19the moment we need to walk away and to forget
00:15:19for them all those days and have a walk away and to get that
00:15:28i don't see what i want to do
00:15:29why are they do
00:15:29you have a happy honor of that
00:15:29be a hard time
00:15:30why are you have a happy honor of that
00:15:30E.
00:15:30i think that
00:15:30I'm a happy person
00:15:31I'm a happy person there is
00:15:35This year, 71 years ago, I spent all my life taking photos.
00:15:44The war began, and the 2nd of February came to the army in the village of Savincia.
00:15:50So I was from the third bar, from the third floor.
00:15:59The occupants came to Savincia.
00:16:03Fashists, racists, bitches.
00:16:07They will burn in hell.
00:16:17We will count on the third floor.
00:16:20Now they will go quickly, then the first floor.
00:16:28Show, show, Orel.
00:16:32It will burn you water.
00:16:37This is the balcony.
00:16:38This is the balcony.
00:16:40This is the balcony.
00:16:41This is the movie not once.
00:16:44It's good that there was snow.
00:16:46It was trees, it was not visible.
00:16:47If they saw it, it would end up.
00:16:51It would end up.
00:16:57The plane was going to be the outside.
00:16:58There's people in the room.
00:16:59If you weren't known, we were not invited in the room.
00:17:09And back three.
00:17:14In the flesh, we were in the room.
00:17:18You will work on us, but it will be your fourth.
00:17:24This is not people, they are barbarians.
00:17:27This is how the world allowed these things.
00:17:33I don't understand, for example.
00:17:51There's a real purpose to the way they circle the pizza trucks in these villages.
00:17:57Turn up the music loud enough so the Ukrainians, and the volunteers, can't hear the bangs anymore.
00:18:05What are you doing?
00:18:07Two.
00:18:09Two.
00:18:10Two, that's it.
00:18:12Oh my God, that mustache.
00:18:1429.
00:18:15Oh, 12.
00:18:22It's not that they're starving for food, they're starving for interaction.
00:18:27It's just the actual physical touch.
00:18:30The other part of it, too, is just play.
00:18:33So they get to step outside of themselves, and to be something totally different.
00:18:39Like even the little girl, when she has the cat face paint on, suddenly she's transformed.
00:18:46Meow.
00:18:58This young boy is called David.
00:19:00He was hidden by his grandmother in a cellar when the Russians came.
00:19:04Meow.
00:19:05Meow.
00:19:09Even the kids died on the cellar.
00:19:12An old man.
00:19:20Meow.
00:19:21Meow.
00:19:30Meow.
00:19:30Meow.
00:19:31Steel.
00:19:32Meow.
00:19:36The aerial you can see over there is meant to warn the village
00:19:40when an attack is imminent.
00:19:46The problem is, the alarms go off so often here,
00:19:50the people just ignore them.
00:20:04There's so many conflicting elements of it.
00:20:08Like, I mean, just last week we were set up and, you know, a military...
00:20:13It was a beautiful day just like this, like clear skies, sunny,
00:20:17kids laughing, playing, and then a military officer pulled up
00:20:20and told us we had to leave in six minutes
00:20:22because there was a Russian drone nearby.
00:20:26So we had to pack up and leave like in an instant.
00:20:29And it's just like the push and pull of that because
00:20:33on one hand, it's a beautiful day.
00:20:35Like, how can there be...
00:20:38How can there be beauty and death in one place at once?
00:20:46That's kind of how it is.
00:20:47So I'll say wonderful and then I'll say stressful.
00:20:51Hi!
00:20:54Thank you!
00:20:55Pa pa pa pa pa!
00:21:03Unpleasantness is so normalised here
00:21:05that to trust local reaction for when you should be scared
00:21:08is quite a dangerous habit, I'd say.
00:21:11I think people who have been here for a long time
00:21:13almost resign themselves to that
00:21:15in that there is nothing they can do about it
00:21:17so they choose not to be afraid.
00:21:20Whether that's healthy or not, I don't know.
00:21:23Or like the farmers who are just ploughing along between the front lines.
00:21:51I've never quite known what I was on the planet for.
00:21:55I felt pretty lost most of my life.
00:21:59I used to teach flying, backpack flying, paramotoring.
00:22:06Used to teach skid diving here and there around the world.
00:22:10Worked as a captain on a sailing boat.
00:22:15I'm incredibly privileged.
00:22:17I come from this unbelievably safe, easy, wonderful world.
00:22:24When I found this, I felt for the first time
00:22:27that all of my very weird abilities
00:22:31that have never fitted onto any CV came together
00:22:34and made me good at this.
00:22:37I was looking for the first time
00:23:07I was with you all the days, I was in sorrow of sorrow
00:23:52With the city under nightly attack by waves of Russian drones, the only real protection
00:23:58lies with these men, a small team of drone hunters.
00:24:21It's the same night after night.
00:24:23They shoot some down, but the numbers are overwhelming.
00:24:48Attention, air raid alert.
00:24:55What's going on, Marcel?
00:24:57Well, some air raid alert.
00:25:03And of course the procedure is to go into the shelter, but stubbornly enough I think this
00:25:11is more important, the job that we are doing right now, and let the Russians not disturb
00:25:17it.
00:25:18Well, we were under alert for 27 hours yesterday, so going to the shelter is not really an option.
00:25:25OK.
00:25:25I think that's what I have to do.
00:25:26Yeah.
00:25:28Tom, I was thinking about risk last night and how you analyse risk.
00:25:33People think, you know, you're going to Kharkiv, you're going to die, which of course the reality
00:25:38is not the case.
00:25:39Yeah, no, I'd agree.
00:25:40Yesterday is a really good example because there was a big missile strike across the country.
00:25:44It hit really hard.
00:25:46There's a reality here that no one really notices.
00:25:51Yeah, some volunteers say, oh, I feel like I haven't really seen the war and I wish there
00:25:55been some bombs.
00:25:57I disagree personally.
00:25:59I'm a big fan of the quiet weeks.
00:26:07I didn't come out here knowing the risk.
00:26:10I started off on the border in Poland and we sort of worked our way east, so it was sort
00:26:15of like dropping a lobster into a pot and then turning up the heat slowly.
00:26:21He tells me we're going to marry as soon as he meets Daddy and all these problems will
00:26:29go away.
00:26:31I knew him well as far as I could go.
00:26:34Before the war, Audrey McAlpine was a folk and bluegrass singer from Nashville, Tennessee.
00:26:40Though he's a little bit old.
00:26:42I think definitely I came out here to experience what living was to feel something in a deeper
00:26:52way.
00:26:52I think war heightens everything.
00:26:55It heightens the way that we love.
00:26:57It heightens the way that we hate.
00:26:58It heightens the way we feel stress.
00:27:00All those things.
00:27:02I think that can be attractive to people, especially nowadays where things feel quite damp
00:27:06and muted.
00:27:07I can't help what I do for myself.
00:27:12He's got keys to this castle of mine.
00:27:17I'll love this crowd.
00:27:20I met Tom.
00:27:22And so that changed things for me a lot too.
00:27:26And that blossomed into something else.
00:27:31Because it's something that we've grown together from just a little tent on the border to what
00:27:38it is now.
00:27:45When I first saw him, I thought he was a celebrity actually.
00:27:52I don't know.
00:27:53He sort of had this way about him.
00:27:54He was a bit debonair or something like that.
00:27:58But he's certainly got a ruggedness to him.
00:28:01And I think I've seen him change a lot.
00:28:05He came out here as this English playboy and became a real leader over the course of two
00:28:11years.
00:28:23We're leaving Kharkiv on the road south.
00:28:27Everywhere you look, there are the reminders of war.
00:28:36Here they've widened the motorway so fighter jets can land away from Russian eyes.
00:28:48We're heading to Zaporizhia now.
00:28:53It's a key target for the Russians and is being hit daily with missile and drone attacks.
00:29:05You said to me earlier on that there's a certain amount of relief in your mind that you said that.
00:29:11Yeah.
00:29:11It's not very rational, but having watched a fair few hotels blow up, it's always in one's
00:29:17mind that hotels get blown up.
00:29:20So as the days go on in a hotel, in my mind that there is a stress thinking,
00:29:26what if it happens one day?
00:29:28So it's nice to leave.
00:29:29I suppose more rationally, yeah, the longer you're in one place, the more likelihood of
00:29:34a pro-Russian passing on information and a target happening.
00:29:40So moving is always good.
00:29:42Do you ever share those thoughts with the volunteers?
00:29:44No, not useful.
00:29:53When you're under the leadership of someone who you feel safe with, like Tom, it's when
00:29:58people have the confidence in that situation and you're under their care that you can feel
00:30:04okay to keep going, keep doing what you're there to do.
00:30:08Tom, are you on the E-105?
00:30:13Yeah, but I'm trying to quit.
00:30:16Oh, you want me to get off?
00:30:19The pressure that must have put him under.
00:30:21I can't imagine.
00:30:22I can't imagine it.
00:30:23But it definitely made us feel safe as volunteers.
00:30:29Zaporizhia authorities say we're Russian-guided...
00:30:33...been injured in a Russian airstrike on a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia.
00:30:38Tom's fears are not unfounded.
00:30:40Their last hotel in Zaporizhia was hit by a missile the day before they were due to arrive.
00:30:47And it wasn't the first time.
00:31:10This was the first hotel we ever stayed at, the first time we came to Zaporizhia.
00:31:15And this was all a very beautiful sort of riverside place to relax and got hit.
00:31:23How many people killed him?
00:31:25I know the receptionist died, Olya, because she was a friend.
00:31:30What are your memories of it, Oju?
00:31:33Yeah, it was the first place we stayed in Zap.
00:31:38And like Tom said, we used to have beers there and then we would have breakfast.
00:31:43You'd sort of walk out this door and walk around and have breakfast there and meet with the whole team...
00:31:48...in the mornings before we would leave for pizza.
00:31:52It was probably the first time that shit got real, so to speak.
00:31:57Which was your room?
00:31:59Sort of right over in there.
00:32:04Remember?
00:32:05Remember we had a big pineapple or something?
00:32:07Big fruit?
00:32:08I don't remember a big fruit.
00:32:12What do your family think about it?
00:32:15My family are proud of me and support me and all wish that I'd leave.
00:32:24Your mom keeps an altar for you back home.
00:32:29And a candle burning for him all the time.
00:32:32Presumably having each other is quite important.
00:32:36Yeah.
00:32:38It's quite an intense place to try and have a relationship.
00:32:40I mean, it's 24-7.
00:32:42But yeah, the support's pretty vital.
00:32:48But perhaps you wouldn't have had a relationship if it hadn't been so intense.
00:32:53Possibly not.
00:33:02That same day back in February, we went to make pizzas in a village called Malakochinivka, south of Zaporizia.
00:33:10There, we were just nine miles from the Russians.
00:33:21Of the 50 men who signed up to fight from the village, 20 have died.
00:33:42Step away from the pizza party and you can hear the constant pounding of artillery.
00:33:49Seems like you're dodging bullets here.
00:33:52Yeah, it's funny.
00:33:53Sometimes it feels like you're dodging bullets incredibly well.
00:33:56And you'll have a whole run of weeks where the news is just behind you.
00:34:00And sometimes you get really shitty runs where every night is incredibly loud and you feel like you're in the
00:34:05wrong place every day.
00:34:06Which decision you make is just luck.
00:34:23When the Russians destroyed the Kokhova dam, the lake disappeared, leaving only dry land between the village and the fighting.
00:34:30Here it was Kokhova dam. Water is full there.
00:34:36Just after three days it was everything dry.
00:34:43And like Russians soldiers stay just like 15 kilometers from here on another coast.
00:34:53Nina Yevtashenko is the team's Ukrainian organizer.
00:34:57Yep.
00:34:59Before the war she was a fashion model.
00:35:01Now she's an expert in bombs and missiles.
00:35:05Cluster bomb, maybe, maybe cluster bomb.
00:35:08Very strange that now I understood like all types of rockets or bombs.
00:35:13It's a very strange feeling.
00:35:17You know, like before, two years ago.
00:35:21For me like it was just one type of rockets.
00:35:25Just rockets.
00:35:27Yeah.
00:35:28Strange.
00:35:35Remarkably in a city where bombs are falling almost every day, Nina has opened a new restaurant, specializing in Ukrainian
00:35:43food, even hiring a top chef from the capital.
00:35:47It's just a story.
00:35:47What do you want?
00:35:49You want to?
00:35:50You want to?
00:36:01Well, I wanted to ramble, and always be free.
00:36:07That was before I met you.
00:36:11And I said that no man could ever hold me
00:36:17That was before I left you
00:36:22Tom, you've got a large pile of phones in front of you.
00:36:26What are you trying to accomplish?
00:36:29Cybersecurity has lately outdated the threat level of hacking.
00:36:34It may come to pass that they can hack your AMU number
00:36:37and see the origin of your phone and your location.
00:36:39So having 15 phones all from the west in one place
00:36:44may become more dangerous than it has been.
00:36:46So we've got 15 basic burner phones,
00:36:50which I'm starting to make work
00:36:53so that everyone can be more invisible while they're here.
00:36:58Does anyone not know where the bomb shelter is?
00:37:00The bomb shelter is through the kitchen in this reception room here,
00:37:03straight through the kitchen, past the microwave,
00:37:05and the stairs down to the right.
00:37:07If you hear a bang, no questions,
00:37:08we need to be downstairs within a minute.
00:37:11There's a lot of people that are totally pro-economy
00:37:14around, we're not far from the front line,
00:37:16so when we're out and about,
00:37:17be aware of your own security.
00:37:19Don't forget everyone loves you.
00:37:36So what have we got here?
00:37:38This is a particularly nice bomb shelter.
00:37:41The Cultural Regiment renovated it somewhere early summer, late winter,
00:37:46and it's now a really nice learning space, which is really rare,
00:37:50because under law, the schools can't be open if they haven't got a shelter.
00:37:54This one does.
00:37:55The ones that do around these parts, the shelters are on,
00:37:59the alarms are on 80-90% of the time,
00:38:01so all the kids are spending all day
00:38:03in what's normally a dark, dank Soviet basement.
00:38:06This one's been done up, and it's really good, in my opinion.
00:38:18This one's been done.
00:38:22It's just a empty door.
00:38:25It's been a long time for everyone to know,
00:38:27that my house is there, where my son is.
00:38:33It's hard to remember those times.
00:38:36Even now.
00:38:37I even have a day every day,
00:38:39so that I don't want to fall down.
00:38:45Because the situation for people was like,
00:38:48that at the beginning nothing is normal,
00:38:51but when they came here the soldiers
00:38:53and started to show them who they are,
00:38:56it was very scary.
00:38:58First of all, they took everything in the school,
00:39:00they lived here in the school
00:39:03and in the park, they kept their weapons,
00:39:06so during the arrival of the window
00:39:08it was a lot of windows.
00:39:10We survived the operation,
00:39:12so we left here children,
00:39:15who want to teach them.
00:39:18We survived the occupation,
00:39:21so there are still children here,
00:39:23who want to study.
00:39:25And as you said,
00:39:26Okay.
00:39:27You're a little bit.
00:39:28Okay.
00:39:29Good.
00:39:29Good.
00:39:31Good.
00:39:36Good.
00:39:39Good.
00:39:41Good.
00:39:43Good.
00:39:43Good.
00:39:44Good.
00:39:46Good.
00:39:50Good.
00:39:52Good.
00:39:53for children, because now the last time, three months ago,
00:40:00there are a lot of our boys, who protected our country,
00:40:05many of them, unfortunately, do not protect our country,
00:40:09but we are all around and we are all friends.
00:40:23On today's day, there are already 9 dead soldiers and 8 soldiers.
00:40:28Only ours?
00:40:29No, but in our community, there are 9 rural areas.
00:40:35And on today's day, from our community,
00:40:38there are more than 200 men and boys,
00:40:41who fight in the LSU, in the Guard.
00:40:54Every village you go to in Ukraine, you realise what's missing.
00:40:59There are no men.
00:41:02They've all gone to fight.
00:41:18That boy's younger than me.
00:41:21That's when he's...
00:41:23Which one?
00:41:232002.
00:41:29This kind of puts into perspective
00:41:32how little we can really understand.
00:41:35And then, just the open graves.
00:41:38And then, whether they're already for someone
00:41:42or they're just...
00:41:44waiting.
00:41:49Everyone in that queue will know someone here.
00:41:54And that's why you do it,
00:41:57to make things a tiny bit lighter for them that day.
00:42:15Um...
00:42:15I find this pretty overwhelming.
00:42:17Don't you?
00:42:19Yeah.
00:42:21I find it very sad and...
00:42:23it makes me very angry too.
00:42:27I think you find it quite hard to look into those faces.
00:42:42I think I don't know where any of my friends are buried.
00:42:45I need to stop answering their fence.
00:43:06What is the 재밌 for us?
00:43:13I can see it.
00:43:14mitä
00:43:15day off from the charity for Tom. He's made a lot of friends in this war and
00:43:21today we're taking pizzas to one of them, Petro, who commands a howitzer platoon
00:43:26near Zaporizhia, where it's too dangerous to take volunteers. Can you tell me where
00:43:33we're going? We're going to our police, which is hiding in the bushes. So there
00:43:42are the crew. You can speak with them, ask them everything you want. I think guys
00:43:50will answer you frequently. Is everyone happy with their face being on camera?
00:43:56Does anyone have it? Yeah, it's okay. They're happy. They're happy with it.
00:44:05As we get closer to the fighting, we're about seven miles away now. You can see
00:44:11smoke from the Russian artillery.
00:44:54So this is our baby. Now it's under reconstruction, so it will operate very soon. So main protest,
00:45:07that's why we are here. Every day we are not killing Russians. We must say we think we're
00:45:17waste, waste a day.
00:45:22The noises we hear over there, what's happening?
00:45:25The noises is warfare. There are active actions of enemy or maybe of our guys. I can say for sure,
00:45:43but the noises we hear is war.
00:45:48You can tell them how they live. Okay?
00:45:53Yo.
00:46:13So a little bit present for you. One for you, man. Thank you. And one for you guys. I can
00:46:20spread.
00:46:20Okay. Thank you.
00:46:23Buddy, be careful if it's dirty. I will keep my flowers in it. Okay.
00:46:31Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for yours.
00:46:44Ukraine and it turns out that your visas have expired. We're all sick and tired of your
00:46:51fucking bombs and we're all disgusted by your sins and your arms. Time to fuck off back
00:46:57to where you belong. Fucker, fucker, motherfucker. Fucker, fucker, motherfucker. Mr. Putin, the
00:47:07whole world knows that you're even a bit of a prick. Everywhere we stay there's a weird
00:47:14contrast between the cheery volunteers and traumatising drunk soldiers on a couple of
00:47:20days leave from the front line.
00:47:38I'm very evil, but I'm a fool. When I was 20, I got sick. I got sick.
00:48:10We meet the soldiers quite regularly in these hotels who are having their two weeks off getting
00:48:15wildly drunk to hide the pain and going back up for their bits. Yeah, it's a half hour drive
00:48:23from there, back at the meat grinder. And yet here we sit. It's surreal. The thing I think
00:48:33I find hardest is the ever-increasing understanding of the vast silent tragedy that is a country
00:48:48at war for its survival. And you can't quite grab it because this is civilian life going on and the
00:49:00coffee machine's working. But the longer you spend it, the more you start to feel in every single
00:49:07person you meet the same weight of the huge tragedy unfolding. And my wonderful volunteers can come in for
00:49:17two weeks and bounce and smile and bounce out again and have the most life-affirming experience
00:49:22in the world. And almost two and a half years in, I just find it all terribly, terribly futile and
00:49:35tragic.
00:49:45Fighting around the village of Krakosk has been intense. Ukrainian forces drive the occupy of Russia.
00:49:50So the question of defensive lines and supporting this area is particularly...
00:49:54All houses here are completely destroyed.
00:49:58Go on.
00:49:59Go on.
00:50:02Go on.
00:50:03Go on.
00:50:04Go on.
00:50:04Go on.
00:50:05Go on.
00:50:06Go on.
00:50:06Go on.
00:50:07Go on.
00:50:07Go on.
00:50:11Go on.
00:50:15Go on.
00:50:16Go on.
00:50:18Go on.
00:50:31As we travel further south towards Mikaylaev, we pass through villages that have been ripped
00:50:37apart in the fighting. This is the cultural center in Posadpokrovsky.
00:50:48I don't know.
00:51:21I don't know.
00:51:52I don't know.
00:52:33I don't know.
00:52:40Have you seen this before?
00:52:42Yep.
00:52:44Really many times.
00:52:54And trying to imagine, like, what that was like being here, just being in this kindergarten,
00:53:00in this place, and all of a sudden all of these windows breaking on you, how scary that would
00:53:05be, especially for children, you really get the sense that everyone's working together,
00:53:11and I think it would be a really nice thing if we could come and do our part.
00:53:30Missile came in here last night into the middle of this set of residential buildings.
00:53:35Well, by the time the young boy died, he was on his way home, the gentleman up on the balcony
00:53:42sweeping, his wife died.
00:53:46Pretty amazing, he's still trying to tidy up.
00:53:50The gentleman with his pop-up at the door is his son, who's come back from the front line
00:53:55as a soldier, because his mum has just died.
00:54:00And…
00:54:01It's been overwhelming, really.
00:54:11She's 82 years old.
00:54:18Old lady was in her kitchen, sitting close by the window, and all frame just blow up, and thanks God
00:54:27it didn't hit her.
00:54:30How long have they lived here?
00:54:32How long have they lived here?
00:54:3333 years.
00:54:45The main thing is not to be discouraged.
00:54:54She went like this. Tough lady.
00:55:30So you were talking to a little girl. How did that go?
00:55:33So, you know, that was a little, I'd say, nine or ten-year-old girl, and then she said,
00:55:45when you're here, it's not scary, it translated, which broke my heart, really, because I've been there for a day.
00:55:57And life's fucking scary in there, every day, because the skies are not safe.
00:56:05Quite a terrible thing to hear from a child.
00:56:32We've come to meet Anna Skripke, the team's organiser in Mykolaiv.
00:56:38Anna's job is to work out which villages are safe to go to.
00:56:43When the Russians came, it was fighting just 50 metres from her house.
00:56:51At this moment, our friends from Kherson was calling us and said,
00:56:55Anna, you have the big force of Russians are going to Nikolai from our side of Kherson.
00:57:03And we were going them toward, you know?
00:57:05I cannot imagine the life under occupation, so.
00:57:09I am too.
00:57:11Yeah.
00:57:12But we are happy that, but we were very close to, to have our city under occupation, very close to.
00:57:20Yeah.
00:57:27He's grown about like 10 times since she first got him.
00:57:31His name is Chippendale.
00:57:34When the Russians took that song, he was abandoned there, put in some sort of a shelter.
00:57:40And so, Anna adopted him.
00:57:43They, she calls him victory pig.
00:57:46So, the plan is that she won't eat him until Ukraine wins the war.
00:57:50And even then, I think she might not eat him.
00:57:53I don't think so.
00:57:55But he does eat a lot of pizza.
00:57:57If you ever did eat him, he would probably just taste like a pizza.
00:58:09Regarding our work, it's more intense here.
00:58:11We're going into Hadassan every day for the next 10 days.
00:58:14It's about as grown up as it gets.
00:58:17It's been very heavily occupied for a long time.
00:58:19People have had a very, very bad time.
00:58:21So, our work's really important.
00:58:24There are lots of boo-traps.
00:58:26There are lots of mines.
00:58:27Once we're through that checkpoint, we have to drive through the city, which is well within artillery range.
00:58:32We keep at least 100 meters between each vehicle.
00:58:35So that if any incoming does come, we minimize the risk.
00:58:39Each hour that passes, it does get more dangerous.
00:58:42Because there's more time for people to pass on messages.
00:58:46So, there's no like hanging around and chatting at the end.
00:58:48When we're finished, we pack up efficiently and we move on.
00:58:54Cool. We're on the road. Let's go.
00:59:00So, the village we're going to is on the Russian side of the defensive trench.
00:59:07Yeah. This is the first line.
00:59:09There'll be at least two more new defensive lines as we go in.
00:59:13The village we're going to is out to the eastern for all of them.
00:59:20I was there for the first two days of Herson when we initially came into the city.
00:59:28And they were definitely stand out as some of the two most intense days of my entire time with
00:59:34charity. For sure.
00:59:36That first field there, the last of the shells that came in at us that day, landed in that field.
00:59:50It's all a bit more real.
00:59:52I remember going through the checkpoint, we have to drive for 20 minutes inside artillery range.
00:59:57So, we make sure we're never ever going to stop in there.
01:00:01And once we're through that checkpoint, I also become an incredibly grumpy bastard.
01:00:09Okay. I've left the checkpoint. I'm parked a few hundred meters down the road.
01:00:16Yeah. So, I'm a few hundred meters towards Mick alive.
01:00:22They're saying five minutes. It's probably going to be at least half an hour.
01:00:29The soldiers at the checkpoint have just asked us to park further away.
01:00:33We've been told our trucks make too tempting a target.
01:00:38Hey, everybody. The main reason for our delay is that the village began to
01:00:42get hit yesterday afternoon.
01:00:46Everybody's lead is on his way. I'm going to have a chat with him.
01:00:49If a missile came in, then we're going to go and do our job.
01:00:52If it came under artillery bombardment, I'm afraid of canceling them going home.
01:00:56And I think that's the case, but I'm going to talk to him first, okay?
01:01:05So, basically, current shelling range for Russian artillery is like 20,
01:01:1125 clicks. So, we try not to go any closer than that to the front line.
01:01:16And there seems to be, like, mixed messaging as to whether this village was hit with artillery yesterday.
01:01:23So, long-range missile, we go. Artillery, we don't.
01:01:28Exactly. Yep. They're honestly both pretty dangerous.
01:01:34The difference is just that you get a forewarning with a missile and you don't with a shell.
01:01:41You would just hear the whizzing sound right before it makes impact.
01:01:46Everyone is getting nervous now. We've waited here for an hour.
01:01:50It's 40 degrees. And there are Russian drones in the sky.
01:02:09So, we have a resolution?
01:02:11Yeah, we have a resolution.
01:02:14Our main contact from military administration,
01:02:16the Yaroslav, came to meet us at the checkpoint, who could bring us through.
01:02:20I said, the checkpoint's saying the village got hit by heavy artillery bombardment.
01:02:25If that's the case, we're not doing it because we'll kill everyone.
01:02:29He said, fair point.
01:02:31Uh, we telephoned the village leader, who said, no, we're 25 kilometers from the border.
01:02:36It's not possible to be hit by artillery here. And yesterday was a very peaceful day.
01:02:40So, we're going in.
01:02:42Stressful start to the day.
01:03:05I saw the pilots on the right. They were Ukrainian pilots once you've entered.
01:03:11Driving the road for the first 20 minutes after that checkpoint is fucking dangerous.
01:03:20This is footage from a Russian attack drone as it closed in on a Ukrainian army officer's car yesterday in
01:03:26Kherson.
01:03:30At the last minute, it changes course and hits a humanitarian aid truck.
01:03:40What happened to World Central Kitchen could happen to us. Could have happened yesterday.
01:03:47I mean, it's always been the case. We've always known there have been lots of
01:03:50humanitarians killed by Russians in this war. Um, I guess, as always,
01:03:55it's just a bit more freaky when you get confronted with solid evidence.
01:04:43first location we planted to stop in a middle of the village but there is open area a lot of
01:04:52cars
01:04:53and probably it will be a nice target for Russian drones so we decided to change location behind of
01:05:00the school with a nice plane area for children I think that in these benches where we can also to
01:05:08have a rest see I don't feel that much safer and this place it looks it looks like safer it's
01:05:16safe
01:05:16it's possible during war in Ukraine you know we cannot determine any very safe place but we can
01:05:22be close to just a bit stressful when the locals sort of say I'll be fun to go under the
01:05:30trees
01:05:31because you're less likely to get drones but it's same every day is this place particularly risky
01:05:40just the same risk level as yesterday just such when people talk about it because it gets into your head
01:05:53that was an exciting journey Grant yes bit of an exciting journey yeah that was fun definitely
01:06:01the most smoke we've seen in one place at one time but uh we made it safe and sound get
01:06:09to help out
01:06:09the people I think this place definitely needs it
01:06:31it's pretty fucking horrible man knowing that there's 15 young passionate people helping in that
01:06:38square and I've put them there and then there's a few hundred very hungry people having a shit time
01:06:48and then I've put them in that square as well and then if it gets hit how do I live
01:06:56with it sorry I'm just having a wobbly day
01:07:43this is an apartment in Zaporizia which has been under heavy fire for
01:07:48the last two weeks I'm giving up this apartment because it looks like they're starting to try and
01:07:53flatten the city that we can't take
01:08:01what kind of memories looking out of this window lots lots watch lots of bombs coming into that view
01:08:37the moment we step outside the
01:08:42apartment the missiles start exploding I counted four in less than an hour yet amazingly this boy is still
01:08:53driving his toy car in the town square
01:08:55so
01:08:58I love you.
01:09:40After two and a half years of making pizzas, Audrey has found a new calling, reporting
01:09:47on the war from the front line.
01:09:49So we've just been driving about what feels like 150 miles an hour and we just came to
01:09:54a complete stop because we got word that there's a reconnaissance drone above the position
01:09:59that we're headed to and even just sitting here, you can see flashes and big bangs in
01:10:04the distance, much shelling all around where we're going to be headed to.
01:10:21I can't carry on doing this because my mental health is shattered and I just haven't got
01:10:26anything left in me.
01:10:30But I know so very many people here who don't have the luxury of being able to walk out because
01:10:36it's their home, I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
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