"I left Sheffield for Kharkiv 500 days ago. I've seen cities destroyed and Ukraine's amazing fighting spirit"

“On July 17, I will have been in Ukraine for 500 days! To mark this milestone and to remind people that the war is still raging here and British volunteers are very actively involved, I have put together a '500 days' campaign. Just last week, Pete Fouche was the sixth British volunteer to be killed here, more than any other country. The threat for us is very real, every day.

“I personally have heard well over 500 explosions in the city and directly seen 10. the nearest to me has been 200m. I have had more than 30 strikes close to me in the 300-500m range. I have also experienced shelling and bombings on my deliveries to frontline villages.

“We make a huge difference out here and British support is considered to be the best. I make a habit of always flying our flag and of course the flag of my beloved Yorkshire! 

“I am originally from Sheffield. I have worked for myself for most of my life and spent nearly 20 years working and travelling all over the world. Adventure is in my heart! That kind of lifestyle has prepared me for this time in Ukraine, the vastly different culture, the challenges it presents, as well as the threat of being bombed every day. Fortunately, over those years I developed a 'no fear' mentality and you absolutely have to have that here! 

“I am just turning 59, going on 39, single and no children. That aspect is important to being here, as there are no consequences if something should happen to me. I've seen guys come out here who left young families behind. I tell them to go home.

“I was near Whitby on February 24, 2022, when the invasion started. For three weeks I listened and watched every day and I became so horrified that it was happening so close to us I just knew I had to do something.

“I started fundraising to get urgent supplies and hire a van, so even though I have been in Ukraine for 500 days I actually started working for the country 840 days ago! I took a van on my own with about £15k of supplies to a refugee camp run by Malteser International near the Ukraine/Hungary border. 

“When I got home and for about two days, I thought I had done enough! In my heart though, I felt destiny was calling and with a feeling that I still had a part to play, I left to make my own way to Kyiv just a few weeks later. My philosophy is simple; those of us who can help, have a duty to. Not knowing one word of Ukrainian (officially the second hardest language in the world to learn!) and with very little knowledge of the country, somehow I managed to get there.

“After asking around, I joined up with a group called 'Brave to rebuild' and went to work clearing up the horror destruction of Irpin and Bucha, near Kyiv. The war though was in the east and I wanted to be in it, where I thought I could make the most difference. Despite everyone else leaving Kharkiv, I took the train out there and most of my 500 days have been here.

“When I arrived the city was a ghost town, bombed to bits and desolate. I asked around again, worked in a military garage and then found the Turbota charity. I have been with them ever since. Throughout all that time, I have continued to work fundraising in the UK, a job that has got more difficult by the month.

“Turbota is an independent charity and totally depends on donations. Unlike big organisations, it goes to the small, remote villages, often near the front-lines, to the most desperate of people. I have been down to Donetsk, Bakhmut, Kup'yans'k, Izium and close to the Russian border many times.

“Our focus is mostly mothers with babies and children, but we help as many as we can. We also have a department for the non-lethal protection and welfare of soldiers. As donations have dried up, I have spent a lot of time sourcing these supplies for British, French and Canadian soldiers here. We do humanitarian aid deliveries as and when the money allows.

“Up until January this year, the situation was relatively stable for us. We were still being regularly hit, but not intensely. Then one morning at 5am, that all changed. Normally, I will count three or four explosions. when it got to 16, I knew it was going to be bad. For six months, it has been relentless with missiles, drones and glide bombs.

“In May alone, 76 hit the city. Then the Russians came over the border, just 20 miles away. At that point, many here thought that the war could be lost, but in typical Ukrainian fighting spirit, they managed to turn it around and with western weapons arriving, slowly managed to gather some momentum again. A quarter of Kharkiv, a city the size of Birmingham has been destroyed. The electricity and phones are off regularly, sometimes the water. There has been no drinkable tap water here for over two years.

“Mentally and physically, we have been pushed to the limit of exhaustion. But I can see the difference we make here. Soldiers will hug you. Mothers with babies will hug you, cry and thank you over and over again.

“When children who have suffered unimaginable hardship smile at you for giving them gifts and chocolate, that is all the motivation you need to keep going. When it is all over, I just want to know that I did my best. That's all.”

Michael is continuing his fundraising efforts to help civilians in Ukraine. If you would like to donate, you can do so via this link.