Winnipeg humanitarian embarks on perilous mission to Ukraine amid burst dam, threat to power plant
Posted June 13, 2023 5:10 pm.
Last Updated June 13, 2023 7:15 pm.
A Winnipeg man travelling to Ukraine for his third humanitarian mission since the Russian invasion began last year says this latest one comes with increased risk.
Chad McFarland says his latest trip to support Ukraine will pose significant dangers due to the ongoing counter-offensive and the recent destruction of the dam in Kherson.
In the early hours of June 6, the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast was destroyed, causing extensive flooding in the region. The dam was under the control of the Russian military.
“There have been literal bodies washing up on shorelines, hundreds of kilometres away from the initial flood site,” said McFarland, who founded the group the Canada EH Team – or Emergent Help for Ukraine.
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The collapsed dam has endangered the lives of civilians and military personnel, homes and infrastructure. It’s also posing a major threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“The kind of humanitarian need is so great right now,” said McFarland.
“A year-and-a-half into the war, the need is still very great and almost increasing.”
Winnipeg man Chad McFarland on a humanitarian mission in Ukraine. (Submitted by: Chad McFarland)
McFarland has travelled to Ukraine twice since Russia’s full-scale invasion – once last April and again four months ago. The objective of his third humanitarian mission is to deliver two trucks for combat medics on the frontlines in Kherson.
“Their vehicles get destroyed, either by artillery attacks, or just the roads. You’re off-roading all the time so vehicles just break down or they get destroyed,” he said.
“Seven-hundred-thousand people are displaced right now in the Kherson region due to the flood waters, so the number of evacuations they are doing has been great and without the vehicles that they need to get people out or get soldiers or medical workers into the area. It’s so important right now.”
MORE ON WAR IN UKRAINE:
- Ukraine recaptures village as Russian forces hold other lines, fire on fleeing civilians elsewhere
- UN aid chief says Ukraine faces `hugely worse’ humanitarian situation after the dam rupture
- Families scramble for food and dry places to sleep after a dam collapses in Russian-occupied Ukraine
McFarland says the logistics of this mission pose a lot of challenges, especially with Ukraine’s counter-offensive currently taking place.
“You are in constant danger in that area, not just from flood waters, the lack of drinking, the lack of food supplies, but you are also under artillery strikes in that zone,” he said.
The Winnipeg man says he was within 500 metres of an artillery strike when he was in Ukraine in February. As nerve wracking as it may be, he is committed to the cause.
“It has the potential to really affect us, and we should continue our support and continue our efforts as much as we can to rescue Ukraine and have them have their land back and freedom and democracy as they have been desiring for so long.”
McFarland is trying to raise $15,000 for the two medic vehicles he is supplying to his team on the frontlines.
