HELP FOR UKRAINE

Wetherby-based car dealership SUV Prestige has delivered a Mitsubishi L200 to Ukraine to help it in its fight against Russia.

Car Dealer had featured dealer principal Steve Dhesi in a podcast and one of the stories that week was about Car4Ukraine.com – a charity formed after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It involves young Ukrainians organising the donation and importation of vehicles such as pick-up trucks that are much in demand in the war against the Russian aggressors.

That story and Steve’s ‘live-on-air’ decision to donate a Mitsubishi L200 triggered a wider momentum, and with a bit of WhatsApping and a lot of direction from experienced Ukrainian helper Patrick McIntyre, February 2 saw five pick-up trucks descend on Folkestone late at night for a ferry departure early the next morning.

The trucks, each one donated by a different Brit and intended for use by the Ukrainian army, then drove in a convoy across Europe, finally reaching the Ukrainian border late on February 5. The journey wasn’t without incident, though. One of the trucks suffered a suspected steering column seizure while leaving a toll booth in Poland. After an involuntary sudden move left, it was hit by a Nissan Navarra in the next lane across belonging to a Pole, and both vehicles ended up being taken away on low loaders with extensive damage to the Nissan, but luckily no injuries to any occupants.

The damaged British truck was due to be delivered to Ukraine, where it will still be repaired and sent on for frontline use.

All the trucks were full to the brim with humanitarian aid ranging from thousands of disinfectant wet wipes to kids’ toys donated by the good people of Yorkshire following a social media call-out by SUV Prestige head of marketing Harry Leighton.

Leighton said: ‘This was a very meaningful trip for all of us. People don’t realise how lucky they are in the UK. We might have cost pressures but Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, their country having been invaded illegally by Russia.’

The trucks arrived in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv very late on February 5.

It was unforgettable in several ways. The border crossing was complex because vehicles have to be signed into army ownership. Obviously, once in Ukraine there’s no insurance or anything like that, so you’re driving on a military permit from then on in a truck that five minutes ago was yours and now it’s not yours and the V5 is gone.

It was several degrees below zero and snowing, with lots of ice, so we all engaged the diff lock and drove carefully down a border road lined with a forest of sombre larch trees all covered in snow. It was beautiful but it was memorably strange because there were military checkpoints and we were all tense. It’s a country at war, not a holiday destination. And yet when we stopped at a petrol station so clean and warm that it was better than anything you see in the UK and were able to get a hot coffee close to midnight, that confounded expectations again.

On the Ukrainian side was Ivan Oleksii, one of the founders of Car4Ukraine.com, and first thing the next day he led all the drivers and trucks from their hotel to a secret workshop location where ordinary Ukrainians have foregone salaries to work round the clock to modify donated vehicles with armour-plating.

We were shown how the door cards are removed and large plates of 10mm steel plate inserted and welded into place. Similar protection is placed over part of each window, around the grille and inside the engine compartment to protect the air intake, battery and radiator. By the time we left the workshop, staff had already begun work on a donated Ford Ranger, originally from Surrey and a victim of the forthcoming expansion of London’s Ulez.

Then we were taken to a second location where trucks are painted and fitted with different configurations of gun turret before final transit to the frontline.

McIntyre said: ‘When they go into service, the trucks can last anything between two hours and several months. But the average life is three weeks.’ That sounds brutal until you realise that in one situation it is claimed that ground-to-air missiles mounted on a truck worth £4,000 brought down two Russian helicopters that had cost millions.

Another driver, Roger Lord from Gretna Green, said: ‘This whole thing is an example of civil society acting rapidly to fill a need. We almost totally circumvented politics and bureaucracy and delivered the trucks in three days flat.

‘They are then expected to be on the frontline within two to three weeks. It’s an outstanding example of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.’

Nasar Kravchuck, a Ukrainian participant in a grass-roots vehicle supply chain, says that the workshop mechanics get burned out from working non-stop in sub-zero temperatures.

‘They then take a break by delivering one of the trucks to the frontline.’

This is a gruelling drive of 15 to 40 hours minimum from western Ukraine to either Kyiv or one of the active fronts in the south and east.

Many of the roads are in poor condition and currently ice-bound.

He added: ‘Eighty per cent of all military movements are conducted in these types of vehicle. The primary demand, and it is huge, is for pick-up trucks, but we will also take SUVs for fast extraction situations, as long as they are 4x4 and diesel.’

The British trucks donated on this occasion were three Mitsubishi L200s, one Ford Ranger and a Toyota Hilux. Not a Land Rover in sight, although as we were leaving we did see a lone classic Defender ambulance being driven in on a UK plate.

The mechanics reported that the Hilux is the most sought-after truck but also the most expensive. The Ranger is the easiest to work on because it has bags of space under the bonnet, while the L200 is good in the field, being a bit lighter.

The older Fords including this one on an 05-plate have that solid 2.5 litre Mazda engine that can go forever with ordinary oil and filter changes.

Kerb weight is all relative when you have added stacks of steel plate. Even closing a door becomes an event once these trucks leave the workshop, as we saw firsthand. Yet these vehicles can cope. They all have a payload of a tonne or more, so can easily cope with armour where an ordinary car would be crippled.

There’s an extra tactical twist resulting in a premium being placed on British, right-handdrive vehicles: Ukraine is a left-hand-drive market, so any enemy fire is typically aimed at that side. The resulting confusion is claimed to have saved lives.

McIntyre has acquired a remarkable reputation, having made dozens of deliveries. Mere days before this trip, he delivered a 12-tonne generator on an old scaffold lorry bought for a few grand. ‘We delivered the generator to the frontline. It will power a military hospital. Really, we need as much support as possible. This is all for Ukraine. They need our help.’

For more information about the charity and to get involved, go to Car4Ukraine.com or email info@car4ukraine.com