A BLACKBURN man, who was held at gunpoint while delivering aid to people in Ukraine, says the situation in the country is "so much worse than it appears on the news".
Harley Whitehead says air raid sirens, empty shelves and seeing people with missing limbs is the horrifying new norm in the war-torn country.
The photographer, who lives between the UK and Ukraine, drove more than 3,000 miles from Blackburn to Ukraine last Sunday to deliver life-saving supplies.
Within a hour of arriving in Lviv, Harley was held at gunpoint for around an hour after a Ukrainian soldier suspected him, and friend Steven Dickinson, of being Russian saboteurs.
Soldiers also found Harley’s Russian textbook as well as a construction book from his time at Salford University and soldiers accused him of making bombs.
Harley, 32, said: “We had already been stopped at checkpoints a few times and I didn’t think anything of it. However, I was asked to stay in the driver's seat.
“After a few minutes, I heard the Ukrainian guy say ‘big problem for you. Do you know what this is?’.
“He found a Russian textbook that was in a bag of mine. I was using it to study the language.
“I had a gun pointed at my stomach for around an hour – I tried to explain but they wouldn’t really listen. They went through my laptop and took photos.”
Matters then got even worse when soldiers uncovered his second expired passport.
Harley said: “I have my old expired passport, which has been clipped. I pulled it out and they said ‘oh you have another passport?’ and it went absolutely mental for about 20 minutes.
“I was scared. I wasn’t sure if the guy holding the shotgun was right in the head. Every time I moved he would raise the gun even higher.
“You look at these people and they’re not even soldiers. No-one knows who is in charge... it is pure chaos.”
His sister, Kimberley, scrambled to find papers for him in the UK while soldiers made a call to other checkpoints in the area.
Thankfully, after receiving confirmation, the soldiers let them pass through the country without further issue.
While Harley admits that the situation was never-wracking, it’s nothing compared to what other Ukrainians have gone through.
Harley said: “Every entry and exit in the town is covered by a military checkpoint. There are people in dug-outs at the side of the road.
“It’s very tense at the minute. Martial law has been invoked so you see civilians with guns in the streets.
“There are guns everywhere and there are some people who probably shouldn’t have guns too.
“There are air raid sirens all the time and you see trails from rockets and missiles across the sky.”
Harley even shared a video of barren supermarket shelves and said “people are starving”.
He said: “I visited a shop on Wednesday and there is nothing edible on the shelves. People are starving.”
After delivering aid on Monday, Harley stayed at a school in Ternopil, a transit point for refugees.
He stays there if he cannot make it back into Poland, after giving out supplies, before the 10pm curfew.
There were more than 160 people at the school, most who have come from the areas of Kharkiv and Sumy.
He said: “You see people with missing limbs all the time.
“We saw a guy who had his leg blown off. He only had it blown off the day before but he was already on crutches.
“The hospital he was receiving treatment at was getting bombed too so they had to get him out and moved into this transit point.
“There was another 82-year-old who was in shock and screaming – but we didn’t have a wheelchair. We had to carry her on a child’s school chair.
“Her son, who had an arm injury, even sent me a picture of his car that they were in when it got hit. It is mad how they even survived.”
Harley said other people in the school were “shell-shocked” and traumatised.
He said: “One guy was sat in the corner of the room just silently rocking with his hood up.
“He was just shaking constantly while we were trying to speak to him.
“People are just shell shocked and frightened.
“A lot of children are crying, women are on their own because their husbands have gone off to war and everyone is worried.
“It’s a hell of a lot worse than what you see on television.”
Harley said he will continue to make these self-funded trips from East Lancashire to Ukraine “for as long as [he] can”.
He said: “I will just keep going until I can’t anymore, or until the van breaks down.
“A lot of aid is going to Poland but not many people are actually taking stuff inside Ukraine.
"We take it where it is needed the most and the Ukraine is where it is needed the most.”
His group, EastLancs4Ukraine, is currently accepting donations for Harley’s next round trip.
Harley said: “To those who have already donated, thank you for the donations. It is going to a great cause and where it is needed the most.”
While the group currently has enough regular clothes, they need first aid kits, blankets, thermal clothes, wheelchairs or mobility aids, over the counter medicines and pet food are just some of the items they are desperately in need of.
To raise money for future aid work and trips to Ukraine, Harley is encouraging people to take part in a fundraiser.
Ride for Ukraine will take place on 20 March at 9am at Birch Services on the M62.
Motorbike riders can pay £5 each, or what you can afford to participate in the charity motorbike and car ride from the westbound to eastbound services.
If you would like to make a donation, visit the EastLancs4Ukraine Facebook page to find out more: https://www.facebook.com/eastlancs4ukraine.
You can also support them by donating to their Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/east-lancs-4-ukraine
Donations made via JustGiving and use of the JustGiving website will be subject to the JustGiving privacy policy https://www.justgiving.com/about/info/privacy-policy/privacy-policy-v30 and cookie policy https://www.justgiving.com/about/info/cookie-notice None of the donations will be collected by Newsquest.
Financial transactions are with JustGiving to donate to the British Red Cross Society DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross Society raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world. For more information visit https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund Charity Registration No. Eng/Wales 220949,Scot SC037738, IOM 0752, Jers430
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