Two British friends have made a brave trip all the way to Poland to help rescue Ukrainian refugees in a van.
Danny Covington, a builder, and Howard Furr-Barton, a ground-worker, have just come back from their second trip to Poland during which they helped refugees from nine families to safety, sometimes driving for 14 hours at a time.
Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and since then refugees have been flocking to the border hoping to escape to eastern Europe and beyond.
More than 11 million people are believed to have fled their homes in Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
Poland’s open-door policy has made it a destination for over 2.5 million refugees, and there has been a huge demand for transport to get them past the refugee centres and into the country.
While listening to the radio at work, Danny was inspired by the story of a guy who drove to Poland with some aid, picked up three refugees, and dropped them somewhere safe.
Danny, from Hertfordshire, said: “I was having a sandwich in my truck at work and heard a guy on Three Counties Radio talking about how he drove to Poland with some aid, picked three people up and dropped them somewhere safe.
“I’d been wanting to do something to help, and I thought: ‘I can do that. I like driving, and I can get to Poland.’
“I called Howard and asked him if he fancied a trip to Poland and that was it, the wheels were in motion.”
The two friends raised over £7,000 in donations from the residents of Ashwell, Hertfordshire, which helped pay for refugees’ travel and hotels as well as a rented van and fuel.
They first set off for Poland on Wednesday, March 16 – and returned the following Thursday, four days later than planned, after extending their stay to help more families.
Not long after returning home, they decided to head back for a second trip on Sunday, April 17.
From his van on the motorway in Poland, Howard explained: “There’s been quite a marked difference from last time, when people were getting out in anticipation of sh*t hitting the fan.
“Now, they’re getting out because it has hit the fan. One guy we picked up was in his 70s and his whole life was in a knackered old suitcase, because his house has been flattened.
“On our last trip, people were miserable because they’d left everything behind. Now, they’re cheerful because they’ve got out of this absolute hellhole.”
The pair have faced endless challenges but the language barrier has been one of the hardest, with Google Translate being “a God-send” – despite at one point mistranslating “we will take you to Chelm” as “we will take you to Hell.”
One family included two deaf women who could only communicate by FaceTiming a Ukrainian-speaking interpreter. After making the journey to Poland, the family were distraught and begged to be taken back to Ukraine.
Danny said: “The challenge was not projecting our own views on them. When they said they wanted to go back to Ukraine we thought they were mad. But they know what’s best for them.
“We decided to stick with everybody, never drop anybody off until they’re 100 per cent safe and where they want to be. That can chuck a few challenges up.”
After extending the first trip, Howard was sacked from his new groundwork job.
He said: “I phoned my mate who was working on the same site and said I wouldn’t be there for another week. They told me not to bother coming in.
“I can understand it. It’s just a pain in the arse because financially we’ve both taken a big hit by doing this.”
But Howard now has a new employer who is more than happy with what he’s doing – and the generosity of the Polish people has helped too.
One traffic officer waived a £37 speeding ticket that Howard had picked up when he found out the purpose of the pair’s trip.
He said: “We’ve seen the Polish people, authorities, police and military deal with Ukrainians who are up the creek without a paddle and show them kindness.
“The Ukrainians and the Polish are extremely pro-UK. Last night I had a beer called F**k Putin in a Polish pub. It was a decent beer, actually.”
On the lessons he’s learned over the two trips, Howard said: “You don’t just have a Plan A and a Plan B. You’re prepared to go up to Plan G.”
Danny added: “It’s made me appreciate the country we live in, everything we have, and everything we take for granted.”
And Howard warned: “I hope people don’t end up with war fatigue. It’s ongoing and it’s easy to just accept that it’s the norm, then everyone’s compassion stops.”
The two are planning to donate the remaining crowdfunded money to a group in Ashwell and neighbouring Baldock to support Ukrainian families staying in Hertfordshire.
The two friends have not ruled out returning to Poland to help more refugees, Danny said: “Never say never. We would stay out here and run people around every day of the week if we didn’t have to go back and earn money.”
Howard added: “A few people have taken our contact details and we’ve said when Ukraine is liberated we’ll go and take them out for a meal.
"One of them laughed and said we’ll have to try Ukrainian borscht!”
