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  • 1 day 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.
00:07:25She lives in ahart ses, her pari-la-la-la-la avat sesús...
00:07:52The first time he came this way was in late summer autumn of 22 as he got liberated when
00:08:00the war was still very very visible here everything was blown up and tanks all over the place.
00:08:06Yep this road is where the eastern advance at the beginning of the war met up with the
00:08:10northern advance all pushing for Kharkiv so this all got occupied it was still horrendously
00:08:15mine the village is still loose legs on a weekly basis through this area and as with
00:08:22all of the eastern villages is now living with the fairly real horror and threat of
00:08:27reoccupation if the front line advances much further.
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 as we get closer to the fighting the roads
00:09:19are becoming eerily deserted.
00:09:27Stop, stop, stop.
00:09:32Bullet balls 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?
00:10:06Horse ideas.
00:10:18Join us.
00:10:19We've got room for our
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.
00:10:45I love this country.
00:10:47And I love this work.
00:10:52It's important that we're here, helping the people out,
00:10:54you know, raising the morale.
00:10:57It's vital.
00:10:59Everybody loves pizza.
00:11:15How hot are you, Rod?
00:11:17No.
00:11:18They just haven't clipped you up.
00:11:24Go, 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.
00:11:53And it, from my experience, tends to really dehumanize people
00:11:56and say, here's your package of toothpaste, nappies, Medicaid,
00:12:01whatever it is, move on through.
00:12:04And 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.
00:12:11We're here in support of you.
00:12:16People hear that the West was with Ukraine,
00:12:19but there's no sign of it on the ground.
00:12:21And when a bunch of Westerners turn up with what's perceived
00:12:24as a Western food product, it made a huge difference.
00:12:44And these are the villages that we've spoken about often
00:12:49in the trust of where we need to be.
00:12:51We have done a lot of the towns, the cities that are known,
00:12:54but we are going to places where there's no aid being delivered,
00:12:58no aid organizations go into them.
00:13:00So I feel we're hitting the heart of where we need to be.
00:13:04To me, I call them forgotten villages.
00:13:07They really are forgotten by their own government,
00:13:09as well as everyone else.
00:13:10And I think we're certainly touching areas that nobody's done.
00:13:15But Kevin, on the way here this morning,
00:13:17we saw an awful lot of signs of destruction and war.
00:13:22I mean, these guys, this place was occupied by the Russians, yeah?
00:13:27Yes, yeah.
00:13:27Most of these little villages were,
00:13:30and 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
00:13:40that have suffered, it's the least I can do.
00:13:44And it's a bond between us and the Ukrainians
00:13:47to let them know that we are here with them.
00:14:06So this is a very chilled-out scene.
00:14:08It seems like the war is a million miles away.
00:14:12Yeah, it's certainly not.
00:14:1426 clicks from the river,
00:14:17then 28, 9 clicks from the Russians.
00:14:22It's about as far as we get, as close as we get.
00:14:24This whole oblast is far from peaceful.
00:14:26It's all had eight months' occupation,
00:14:28and since then, since October 22,
00:14:32it's experienced the war.
00:14:33Every village has heard the war.
00:14:34You hear it on a daily basis.
00:14:36I'm amazed we haven't had them all today.
00:14:39They're tough as fuck, these people.
00:14:41They know that a rocket can come in and kill them all,
00:14:44and they just carry on.
00:14:46I've seen air-defense rockets go off
00:14:49to shoot drones that are over our heads,
00:14:52and I'm in absolute pieces,
00:14:54as any rational person would be,
00:14:56and the crowds just standing there,
00:14:59like, can I have five pizzas, please?
00:15:02The world has made it totally normal.
00:15:05The world has made it totally normal.
00:15:31I'm a citizen of Sandler.
00:15:36I'm a citizen of the Germans in the battalors of the Jews lives.
00:15:44It's been under the world of the Jews.
00:15:47My parents come back to the Jews.
00:15:50I'm a citizen of the Jews.
00:15:52I'm a citizen of the Jews.
00:15:54I tell you, the occupants came to Savinia, fascists, racists, bitches, you will burn the water.
00:16:17We will count on the third, now they will go fast, then the first one will go.
00:16:28Show, show, Orel, it will burn you water.
00:16:37This is the balcony, this is the whole balcony, this is the movie.
00:16:44It's good that there was snow, it was trees, it's not visible, if they saw it, then everything will be
00:16:50finished.
00:16:50It's finished and it's all.
00:16:57There are people in the dumps, if you don't know, we went to the room.
00:17:08There are people in the room, there are three trees, you will work on us.
00:17:21It will be your four-year-old.
00:17:24These are 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.
00:18:05How many?
00:18:06Two.
00:18:09Two.
00:18:10Two, that's it.
00:18:12Oh my God, that mustache.
00:18:14Twenty-nine. Oh, twelve.
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.
00:18:58This young boy is called David.
00:19:00He was hidden by his grandmother in a cellar when the Russians came.
00:19:20David was so traumatized, but he still hasn't learned to speak.
00:19:36The aerial you can see over there is meant to warn the village when an attack is imminent.
00:19:46The problem is, the alarms go off so often here, the people just ignore them.
00:20:04There's so many, like, conflicting elements of it.
00:20:08Like, I mean, just last week we were set up and, you know, a military, it was a beautiful day
00:20:14just like this.
00:20:15Like, clear skies, sunny, kids laughing, playing, and then a military officer pulled up and told us we had to
00:20:20leave 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 on one hand, it's a beautiful day.
00:20:35Like, how 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.
00:21:03Unpleasantness is so normalised here that to trust local reaction for when you should be scared is quite a dangerous
00:21:09habit, I'd say.
00:21:11I think people who have been here for a long time almost resign themselves to that.
00:21:15In that there is nothing they can do about it, so 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 plowing along between the front lines.
00:21:47One, two!
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, sort of 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 that all of my very weird abilities that have never
00:22:32fitted onto any CV came together and made me good at this.
00:22:37I was like, you should stay back.
00:22:46I have to stay back.
00:22:59We should stay back.
00:23:03We should stay back.
00:23:04I'll be with you, my love
00:23:08I'll be with you, my love
00:23:11I'll be with you
00:23:11I'll be with you
00:23:12In the blood of sorrow
00:23:42I'll be with you
00:23:52With the city under nightly attack
00:23:54by waves of Russian drones
00:23:57the only real protection
00:23:58lies with these men
00:24:00a small team of drone hunters
00:24:21It's the same night after night
00:24:23they shoot some down
00:24:24but the numbers are overwhelming
00:24:48Attention, air raid alert
00:24:50Proceed to the...
00:24:55What's going on, Marcel?
00:24:57Well, some air raid alert
00:25:01and
00:25:03of course
00:25:04the procedure is to go into the shelter
00:25:06but
00:25:09stubbornly enough
00:25:10I think this is more important
00:25:12the job that we are doing right now
00:25:15and let the Russians
00:25:16not disturb it
00:25:18Well, we were under alert
00:25:20for 27 hours yesterday
00:25:22so 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
00:25:31and how you analyse risk
00:25:32people think, you know, you're going to Kharkiv
00:25:35you're going to die
00:25:36which, of course, the reality is not... not the case
00:25:39Yeah, no, I'd agree
00:25:40yesterday is a really good example
00:25:41because there was a big missile strike
00:25:43across the country
00:25:44it keeps on really... hit really hard
00:25:46it's a reality here
00:25:47and no one really notices
00:25:51Yeah, some volunteers say, oh
00:25:53I feel like I haven't really seen the war
00:25:55and I wish there'd been some bombs
00:25:57I disagree personally
00:25:58I'm a big fan of the quiet weeks
00:26:07I didn't come out here
00:26:09knowing the risk
00:26:10I started off on the border in Poland
00:26:12and we sort of worked our way east
00:26:14so it was sort of
00:26:16like dropping a lobster into a pot
00:26:18and then turning up the heat slowly
00:26:21Tells me we're gonna marry
00:26:24As soon as he meets daddy
00:26:26And all these problems will go away
00:26:30I knew him well as far
00:26:33Before the war, Audrey McAlpine
00:26:36was a folk and bluegrass singer
00:26:37from Nashville, Tennessee
00:26:39Though he's a little baby
00:26:42I think definitely I came out here
00:26:47to experience what living was
00:26:50to feel something in a deeper way
00:26:52I think war heightens everything
00:26:54it heightens the way that we love
00:26:56it heightens the way that we hate
00:26:58it heightens the way we feel stress
00:27:00all those things
00:27:01I think that can be attractive to people
00:27:04especially nowadays
00:27:05where things feel quite damp and muted
00:27:08I 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
00:27:19I met Tom
00:27:21and so that changed things for me
00:27:24a lot too
00:27:26and that blossomed into something else
00:27:31because it's something that we've grown
00:27:34together
00:27:35from just a little tent on the border
00:27:37to what it is now
00:27:45When I first saw him
00:27:47I thought he was a celebrity actually
00:27:52I don't know, he sort of had this way about him
00:27:54he was a bit
00:27:56debonair or something like that
00:27:58but he's certainly got a ruggedness to him
00:28:00and I think I've seen him change a lot
00:28:05He came out here as this English playboy
00:28:08and became a real leader
00:28:10over the course of two years
00:28:23We're leaving Kharkiv on the road south
00:28:27Everywhere you look
00:28:28there are the reminders of war
00:28:36Here they've widened the motorway
00:28:39so fighter jets can land away from Russian eyes
00:28:48We're heading to Zaporizhia now
00:28:52It's a key target for the Russians
00:28:55and is being hit daily
00:28:57with missile and drone attacks
00:29:05You said to me earlier on
00:29:06that there's a sudden amount of relief in your mind
00:29:10that you said that
00:29:10Yeah, it's not very rational
00:29:12but
00:29:13having watched a fair few hotels blow up
00:29:16it's always in one's mind
00:29:17that hotels get blown up
00:29:19so
00:29:21as the days go on in a hotel
00:29:22in my mind
00:29:23that
00:29:23there is a stress
00:29:24thinking
00:29:26what if it happens one day
00:29:28so it's nice to leave
00:29:29I suppose more rationally
00:29:31yup
00:29:31the longer you're in one place
00:29:33the more likelihood of
00:29:34a pro-Russian
00:29:36passing on information
00:29:37and
00:29:37a target happening
00:29:40so moving's always good
00:29:41Do you ever share those thoughts with the volunteers?
00:29:43No, not useful
00:29:53When you're under the leadership of someone
00:29:55who you feel safe with
00:29:56like Tom
00:29:58it's when people have the confidence
00:30:01in that situation
00:30:02and you're under their care
00:30:03that you can feel
00:30:04okay
00:30:05to keep going
00:30:05keep doing what you're there to do
00:30:08Tom, are you on the E105?
00:30:13Yeah, but I'm trying to quit
00:30:16Oh, he wanted to get off
00:30:19The pressure that must have put him under
00:30:21I can't imagine it
00:30:22I can't imagine it
00:30:23but it definitely made us feel safe as volunteers
00:30:30Zaporizhia authorities say
00:30:31were Russian guided
00:30:32seen injured in a Russian airstrike
00:30:35on a hotel
00:30:35in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia
00:30:37Tom's fears are not unfounded
00:30:40their last hotel in Zaporizhia
00:30:42was hit by a missile
00:30:44the 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
00:31:12the first time we came to Zaporizhia
00:31:15and this was all
00:31:16a very beautiful
00:31:18sort of riverside
00:31:19place to relax
00:31:21and got hit
00:31:23How many people killed him?
00:31:25I know the receptionist died, Olya
00:31:26because she was a friend
00:31:29What are your memories of it, Oju?
00:31:33Yeah, it was the first place we stayed in Zap
00:31:36and, um, Tom's
00:31:39like Tom said
00:31:39we used to have beers there
00:31:40and then we would have breakfast
00:31:43we'd sort of walk out this door
00:31:44and walk around and
00:31:45have breakfast there
00:31:47and meet with the whole team
00:31:48in the mornings before
00:31:49we would leave for pizza
00:31:52It was probably the first time that
00:31:54shit got real, so to speak
00:31:57Which was your room?
00:31:59Sort of right over in there
00:32:04Remember we had a big pineapple
00:32:06or something
00:32:06big 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
00:32:19and support me
00:32:21and all wish that I'd leave
00:32:25Your mom keeps an altar for you
00:32:27back home
00:32:29and a candle burning for him
00:32:30all the time
00:32:32Presumably having each other
00:32:34is quite important
00:32:35Yeah
00:32:37It's, um
00:32:38it's quite an intense place
00:32:39to try and have a relationship
00:32:40I mean, it's 24-7
00:32:42but yeah, the support's
00:32:43pretty, pretty vital
00:32:48But perhaps you wouldn't have
00:32:49had a relationship
00:32:50if it hadn't been so intense
00:32:53Possibly not
00:33:02That same day back in February
00:33:04we went to make pizzas
00:33:06in a village called
00:33:07Malachochinivka
00:33:08south of Zaporizhia
00:33:10There, we were just
00:33:12nine miles from the Russians
00:33:21of the 50 men who signed up to fight from the village
00:33:2520 have died
00:33:42Step away from the pizza party
00:33:44and 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
00:33:53it feels like you're dodging bullets incredibly well
00:33:56and you'll have a whole run of weeks
00:33:58where the news is just behind you
00:34:00and sometimes you get really shitty runs
00:34:02where every night's incredibly loud
00:34:04and you feel like you're in the wrong place every day
00:34:07which decision you make
00:34:08which decision you make
00:34:09it's just luck
00:34:23When the Russians destroyed the Kakhova dam
00:34:25the lake disappeared
00:34:27leaving only dry land between the village and the fighting
00:34:30Here it was Kohovka dam
00:34:34water is full there
00:34:35just after three days
00:34:39it was everything dry
00:34:42and like Russians soldiers
00:34:48they just like 15 kilometers from here
00:34:50on another coast
00:34:52Nina Yevtashenko is the team's Ukrainian organizer
00:34:58before the war
00:34:59she was a fashion model
00:35:01now she's an expert in bombs and missiles
00:35:04cluster bomb
00:35:06maybe
00:35:06maybe cluster bomb
00:35:08very strange
00:35:09now I understood like
00:35:11all types of rockets
00:35:13or bombs
00:35:13it's a very strange feeling
00:35:17you know like
00:35:18before two years ago
00:35:21for me like it was just one type of
00:35:23rockets
00:35:24just rockets
00:35:27yeah
00:35:27strange
00:35:35remarkably in a city where bombs are falling almost every day
00:35:39Nina has opened a new restaurant
00:35:42specializing in Ukrainian food
00:35:45even hiring a top chef from the capital
00:36:06and i said that no man could ever hold me
00:36:23Tom, 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 have 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,
00:37:09you'll need to be downstairs within a minute.
00:37:11There's a lot of people that are totally pretty coming around,
00:37:14and we're not far from the front line, so don't get out and about.
00:37:17Be aware of your own community.
00:37:19Don't think that everyone loves you.
00:37:36So what have we got here?
00:37:38This is a particularly nice bomb shelter.
00:37:40The cultural regiment renovated it.
00:37:45Somewhere early summer, late winter,
00:37:46and it's now a really nice learning space,
00:37:49which is really rare,
00:37:50because under law, the schools can't be open
00:37:52if they haven't got a shelter.
00:37:54This one does.
00:37:55The ones that do around these parts,
00:37:57the 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,
00:38:08and it's really good, in my opinion.
00:38:33It's hard to remember these times.
00:38:36Even now,
00:38:37it's hard to remember these times.
00:38:39It's hard to remember these times.
00:38:39It's hard to remember these times,
00:38:43and it's hard to remember
00:38:46because people had a situation for themselves,
00:38:48because at the beginning nothing is normal,
00:38:51but when the students came here,
00:38:53and started showing up who are they,
00:38:56who, they were in someone,
00:38:56it was very scary.
00:38:57First it was,
00:39:00they didn't get a shelter in school,
00:39:01they lived in school,
00:39:04they held water.
00:39:04They lived in the school
00:39:04and kept their weapons.
00:39:06They were occupied in the park,
00:39:07so during the visit,
00:39:08We had a lot of the windows.
00:39:10We survived the occupation, so we left the kids who want to learn.
00:39:18We survived the occupation, so there are still children here who want to study.
00:39:38We survived the occupation.
00:39:40We survived the occupation.
00:39:43We survived the occupation.
00:39:44This is the entrance to our village and the people around us.
00:39:50This is a little water for children.
00:39:54Because now, last time, 3 months ago,
00:40:00they were nelas.
00:40:02Lots of boys, who they supported us.
00:40:05Many people, unfortunately, do not support our country.
00:40:09But we are all about and all about our heroes.
00:40:23On today's day, there are 9 civilians and 8 civilians.
00:40:28It's only our, and so?
00:40:30No, but I have 9 people in our community.
00:40:35And on today's day, from our community,
00:40:38there are more than 200 people from the guys who fight in the US.
00:40:54Every village you go to in Ukraine, you realize what's missing.
00:40:59There are no men.
00:41:02They've all gone to fight.
00:41:18That boy's younger than he is.
00:41:21That's younger than he is?
00:41:232002.
00:41:29This kind of puts into perspective how 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 waiting.
00:41:50Everyone 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.
00:42:15I find this pretty overwhelming.
00:42:17Don't you?
00:42:19Yeah.
00:42:21I find it very sad and...
00:42:24It makes me very angry too.
00:42:27I think you find it quite hard to look into those faces.
00:42:42Just thinking I don't know where any of my friends are going.
00:42:45They need to stop answering their fence.
00:42:46I'm surprised.
00:42:47I'm surprised.
00:43:08I'm surprised.
00:43:10I'm surprised.
00:43:15it's a day off from the charity for tom he's made a lot of friends in this war and today
00:43:21we're taking pizzas to one of them petro who commands a howitzer platoon near zaporizhia
00:43:27where it's too dangerous to take volunteers can you tell me where we're going we're going to
00:43:35our police which is fighting in the bushes so there are the crew you can speak with them
00:43:44ask them everything you want I think guys will answer you frequently so is everyone happy with
00:43:54their face being on camera does everyone have yeah it's okay that they have it they have it with it
00:44:05as we get closer to the fighting we're about seven miles away now we can see smoke from the Russian
00:44:12artillery
00:44:41we throw
00:44:54This is our baby, now it's under reconstruction, so it will operate very soon, so main protest
00:45:06why we are here. Every day we are not killing Russians, we must say we think we waste a day.
00:45:22The noises we hear over there, what's happening? The noises, it's
00:45:29warfare. There are active actions of enemy or maybe of our guys. I can't say for sure,
00:45:43but the noises we hear is war. You can see how they live?
00:46:13So a little bit of present for you. One for you man, thank you. And one for you guys.
00:46:20I can spread. Thank you. But be careful, it's dirty.
00:46:26I will keep my flowers in it. Okay.
00:46:31Thank you very much for your time.
00:46:33Thank you for yours.
00:46:37Hey there all you Russians, ain't it time that you will retire?
00:46:43I've checked with Ukraine and it turns out that your visas have expired.
00:46:49We're all sick and tired of your fucking bombs, and we're all disgusted by your
00:46:54sins in your hearts. Time to fuck off back to where you belong.
00:46:59Fuck a fuck a motherfucker. Fuck a fuck a motherfucker.
00:47:06Mr Putin, the whole world knows that you're eating a bit of a prick.
00:47:12Everywhere we stay, there's a weird contrast between the cheery volunteers
00:47:17and traumatizing drunk soldiers on a couple of days leave from the front line.
00:47:23What do you do?
00:47:24What do you do?
00:47:26What do you do?
00:47:26What do you do?
00:47:26It's bad.
00:47:28They don't do anything. They destroy.
00:47:31I have 6 friends per meter.
00:47:33How do you do?
00:47:35How do you do?
00:47:366.
00:47:366.
00:47:3770…
00:47:3880.
00:47:3980…
00:47:4180.
00:47:4880.
00:47:5080…
00:47:5180…
00:47:5290….
00:47:5382…
00:47:5380…
00:47:5580…
00:48:10we meet the soldiers quite regularly in these hotels who are having their two
00:48:13weeks off getting wildly drunk to hide the pain and going back up for their
00:48:21bits yeah it's a half-hour drive from there back at the meat grinder and yet here we sit it's
00:48:28um it's
00:48:29surreal the thing I think I think I find the hardest is the ever-increasing understanding
00:48:41of the vast silent tragedy that is a country at war for its survival and you can't
00:48:54quite grab it because this is civilian life going on and the coffee machines working and
00:49:04but the longer you spend it the more you start to feel in every single person you meet the same
00:49:09weight
00:49:10of the huge tragedy unfolding and my wonderful volunteers can come in for two weeks and bounce
00:49:18and smile and bounce out again and have the most life-affirming experience in the world
00:49:25and almost two and a half years in I am I just find it all terribly terribly futile and tragic
00:49:45fighting around the village of the cross has been intense Ukrainian forces drive the occupying
00:49:50so the question of defensive lines and supporting this area is pretty good all houses here are completely destroyed
00:49:58go on
00:49:59go on
00:50:04go on
00:50:06go on
00:50:07go on
00:50:12go on
00:50:13go on
00:50:14go on
00:50:15go on
00:50:17go on
00:50:19go on
00:50:20go on
00:50:21go on
00:50:21go on
00:50:22go on
00:50:22go on
00:50:23go on
00:50:26go on
00:50:31As we travel further south towards Mykolaiv,
00:50:34we pass through villages that have been ripped apart in the fighting.
00:50:39This is the cultural centre in Posad Prokrovsky.
00:51:08I don't think you are all the things that can be found today.
00:51:10You can think about this city.
00:51:10So, both the northern nations are the same.
00:51:11In the west, the northern nations are the same.
00:52:27On the battlefield, a Russian missile hit a children's playground in the Ukraine's
00:52:33southern city of Mykolaiv on Friday, killing one child.
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.
00:53:08You really get the sense that everyone's working together, and I think it would be a really
00:53:12nice 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.
00:53:36Well, 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 who just popped off at the door is his son, who's come back from the front line
00:53:55as a soldier, because his mother's just died, and it was a bit 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.
00:54:25And, thanks God, it didn't hit her.
00:54:30How long have they lived here?
00:54:32How long have they lived here?
00:54:3553 years.
00:54:45The main thing is not to be discouraged.
00:54:54She went like this.
00:54:55Tough lady.
00:55:30So you were talking to a little girl. How did that go?
00:55:37That was a little, I'd say, nine- or ten-year-old girl.
00:55:42And then she said,
00:55:45When you're here, it's not scary.
00:55:48It translated.
00:55:50Which break my heart, really, because I've been there for a day.
00:55:57And life's fucking scary in there, every day.
00:56:02Because 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 that are going to Nikolaiv from side of Kherson.
00:57:03And we were going them towards, 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...
00:57:14But we were very close to have our city under occupation.
00:57:19Very close to.
00:57:20Yeah.
00:57:27He's grown about, like, ten times since she first got him.
00:57:31His name is Chippendale.
00:57:34When the Russians took that song,
00:57:36he was a bandanaire put in some sort of a shelter.
00:57:40And so Anna adopted him.
00:57:43They...
00:57:44She 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 Hedassan every day for the next ten 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,
00:58:28we have to drive through the city,
00:58:31which is well within artillery range.
00:58:32We keep at least 100 metres between each vehicle
00:58:35so that if any incoming does come, we minimise 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.
00:58:49When we're finished, we pack up efficiently and we move on.
00:58:54Cool, we're on the road.
00:58:55Let'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 east of all of them.
00:59:20I was there for the first two days of Herson
00:59:24when we initially came into the city.
00:59:28And they were definitely stand out as some of the two most intense days
00:59:33of my entire time with the charity, for sure.
00:59:36That first field there, the last of the shells that came in at us that day
00:59:41landed in that field.
00:59:50It's all a bit more real.
00:59:51When we're going through the checkpoint,
00:59:53we have to drive for 20 minutes inside artillery range.
00:59:58So we make sure we're never ever going to stop in there.
01:00:01And once we're through that checkpoint,
01:00:03I also become an incredibly grumpy bastard.
01:00:09OK, I've left the checkpoint.
01:00:11I'm parked a few hundred metres down the road.
01:00:16Yeah, so I'm a few hundred metres towards Michaliev.
01:00:21They're saying five minutes.
01:00:23It'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.
01:00:40The main reason for our delay is the village we're going to got hit
01:00:43yesterday afternoon.
01:00:46The village leader's on its way.
01:00:47I'm going to have a chat with them.
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,
01:00:54I'm afraid we're cancelled and going home.
01:00:56And I think that's the case, but I'm going to talk to him first, OK?
01:01:05So basically, current shelling range for Russian artillery is like 20, 25 clicks.
01:01:12So 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.
01:01:22So long-range missile, we go.
01:01:27Artillery, we don't.
01:01:29Exactly.
01:01:30Yep.
01:01:31They'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.
01:01:49We've waited here for an hour.
01:01:51It's 40 degrees.
01:01:53And there are Russian drones in the sky.
01:02:08So we have a resolution?
01:02:11Yeah, we have a resolution.
01:02:14Main contact from military administration, Yaroslav, came to meet us at the checkpoint,
01:02:18who could bring us through.
01:02:21I 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.
01:02:31We telephoned the village leader, who said, no, we're 25 kilometers from the border.
01:02:35It's not possible to be hit by artillery here.
01:02:37And 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.
01:03:07They were Ukrainian pilots, which we've been doing.
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.
01:03:43Could have happened yesterday.
01:03:47I mean, it's always been the case.
01:03:49We've always known.
01:03:50There have been lots of humanitarians killed by Russians in this war.
01:03:52But I guess, as always, it's just a bit more freaky when you get confronted with solid evidence.
01:03:59We've always known.
01:04:06We've always known.
01:04:11We've always known.
01:04:14I don't know what to do.
01:04:31So I'm going to get a little bit of ice.
01:04:44First location, we planned to stop in the middle of the village, but there is an open
01:04:51area, a lot of cars, and probably it will be a nice target for Russian drones.
01:04:57So we decided to change location behind of the school with a nice playing area for children.
01:05:05I think that's in these benches where we can also have a rest.
01:05:09See, I don't feel that much safer having moved to a different part of the village.
01:05:13It looks safer.
01:05:15It's safe.
01:05:16It's possible during war in Ukraine, you know.
01:05:18We cannot determine any very safe place, but we can be close to.
01:05:27It's just a bit stressful when the locals sort of say, oh, it'd be fun to go under the trees
01:05:31because you're less likely to get drones.
01:05:34But it's the same every day.
01:05:37Is this place particularly risky?
01:05:40Just the same risk level as yesterday.
01:05:43Just sucks when people talk about it because it gets into our head.
01:05:53That was an exciting journey, Grimes.
01:05:55Yes.
01:05:56Bit of an exciting journey, yeah.
01:05:59That was fun.
01:06:01Definitely the most smoke we've seen in one place at one time.
01:06:05But, uh, we made it safe and sound.
01:06:08We get to help out the people.
01:06:10I 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 square, um, and I've put
01:06:41them there.
01:06:45And then there's a few hundred very hungry people having a shit time, and I've put them in that square
01:06:49as well, and then if it gets hit, how do I live with it?
01:06:59Sorry, I'm just having a wobbly day.
01:07:09I don't know.
01:07:51I don't know.
01:08:07Lots.
01:08:07Watch lots of bombs go into that view.
01:08:12Baking hot in the summer, full of swires.
01:08:16White and pristine in the winter.
01:08:38The moment we step outside the apartment,
01:08:43the missiles start exploding.
01:08:46I counted four in less than an hour.
01:08:50Yet, amazingly, this boy is still driving his toy car in the town square.
01:08:55I don't know.
01:08:59I don't know.
01:09:01I'm sorry.
01:09:19I'm sorry.
01:09:40After two and a half years of making pizzas, Audrey has found a new calling, reporting
01:09:47on the wall from the front line.
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.
01:10:40I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:11:14I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:11:34I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:11:46I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:12:16I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:12:16I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:12:21I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:12:22I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
01:12:23I'm very ashamed to be leaving them behind.
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