An Edinburgh man who went to Ukraine to deliver aid has spoken out about his harrowing experience visiting frontline towns and villages.
David Sharkey, 26, was in the war-torn country in November with Edinburgh charity Sunflower Scotland. Now, he's written a book about his time in Ukraine.
He said despite landing into what seemed like a country 'that didn't feel like it was at war', David soon saw the reality of the situation when they visited a village that had only one building left standing.
READ MORE - Edinburgh's forgotten hovercraft plan that failed to float beyond the test stage
Speaking to Edinburgh Live about how the aid delivery trip came about, David said: "I've done a wee bit of work with the charity Sunflower Scotland.
"One of the chairs, Oleg, I chatted to a couple of times and met him when he came back from his second trip to Ukraine. He told me about some of the experiences, and I decided in order to support him and the organisation I would go and help him."
David's book, Remember, is out now with all proceeds going to Sunflower Scotland. In it, he hopes to 'challenge the perception of Ukraine'.
He told us: "People make the assumption that all of Ukraine is kind of in the same sort of state.
"That's not the case, when I first stopped in Ukraine we got to the hotel and it was quite a nice hotel, nothing super fancy, but the whole restaurant was still fully operational. It didn't feel like a place that was actually at war.
"That was the really strange first impression I got. It's important to recognise that all parts of Ukraine have actually been affected, but to varying degrees."
When David visited a village that had completely destroyed when the Russians were retreating in September and October, he saw a different side to the war. He continued: "When we pulled in, that was my first real exposure to war as I had expected it.
"There was one house standing in the whole village. Everything else was down to its foundations."
They then visited tenements in the north of Kharkiv, where David said 'tens of thousands' of people had lived. He added: "It was completely in ruin. Some of them so badly you could see from one side to the other.
"The destruction was the thing that got me. Ukraine is a huge country, and we didn't even cover much compared to the actual level of disruption."
David's book is out now, and available here. Sunflower Scotland, who are being supported with sales of the book, send and repair ambulances and provide vehicles, aid, food and medicine throughout Ukraine.
