A British businessman says he has arrived in Ukraine with medical supplies and found the refugee crisis much worse than he expected as people are terrified Russia is turning its attention to the west of the country.
Richard Dass, 55, said medics at the hospital he visited on Saturday morning cheered when he brought in the boxes of supplies he had packed into his 25-year-old Mazda Bongo motorhome earlier this week in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
But he said air raids sirens have been sounding for the first time in the town where he is staying, south of Lviv, which has become a hub for thousands of refugees heading from the east, many arriving with serious injuries.
(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)
Mr Dass said he is turning his attention to sourcing the one piece of kit wanted by every doctor he has spoken to – vacuum therapy apparatus which surgeons use to pull together the wounds of severely injured bomb victims.
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He said he was shocked at what he found in the west of the country after crossing the Slovakian border on Friday.
Mr Dass told the PA news agency: “The refugee situation is a lot worse than I had thought.
“They’re sleeping on the concrete floor of the train stations and bus shelters on the way and all sorts of things.
“In the train station, it’s like seeing hundreds and hundreds of homeless people not knowing what to do next.
“The ones here have not got anything to sleep on. They’ve just got a day pack and a change of clothes.
“They don’t want clothes, though. They want carry mats and sleeping bags.”
(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics)
Mr Dass said he stayed at a friend’s apartment in the town, which he does not want to name, along with a mother and a six-year-old boy who had travelled from the area of the battered city of Kharkiv.
He said the boy was so traumatised after his nine-day journey he just seemed to be a in a trance.
“Somebody showed us a picture of their house but it’s a pile of rubble, everything’s gone,” he said.
He said five or six trains a day are arriving in the town from the east, each with a minimum of 250 refugees on board looking for help.
A group of six of his friends have housed 300 to 400 people in the last three weeks.
Mr Dass set off from Huddersfield earlier this week with a plan to take medical supplies to the hospital where his doctor friend works and then return with a van full of refugees to the school house he is renovating in central Slovakia.
Richard Dass reached the Germany-Poland border on Thursday (Richard Dass/PA)
(PA Media)
He said: “The hospitals are just full. They were over the moon with all the stuff we brought but we need to get more.
“We got out some drawing-up needles and they were just cheering.
“But these vacuum therapy machines are absolutely vital. They’re telling me every 20 minutes and they’re messaging me all the time. Every doctor says the same thing.”
Mr Dass said the area where he is staying had its first air raid warning on Saturday morning since the Russian invasion began.
He said: “We’ve not seen any planes, but we’re told the planes are flying west.
“We were told there were two explosions near to the hospital where we went this morning but we haven’t had that confirmed.
“Things are moving west and the fear is building here.”
Mr Dass gave up his job in sales and marketing 20 years ago to focus on worldwide travel which has taken to him to almost 100 countries.
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He now runs his own business organising bespoke tours of the Himalayas and the Andes.
Details of his appeal for Ukraine are at at gofundme.com/f/aid-for-refugees-ukraine-hospital<