When hundreds of Russian bombs whistle overhead, Martha Aitken said it is only when they get really close that she flinches.
One of only a handful of aid workers willing to head to the most dangerous spots on the Ukrainian frontline to rescue families stuck among the fighting, she’s too focused to feel fear.
Martha, 30, from Abernethy in Perthshire, regularly drives to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, to pick up desperate people caught in the aerial bombardment as the war against Ukraine shows no sign of letting up.
She said: “I don’t know how many evacuations I’ve been on now. We take out 80 to 100 people each day.
“My first evacuation was two months ago and they haven’t stopped – we will do another tomorrow.
“The sound of bombs around Kharkiv is so common I barely lift my head. But when the 40th went off one day, a little eyebrow was raised.
“There were a lot more than 40 bombs that day but the 40th went off far too close to us, which caused damage to some cars with shrapnel. It wasn’t the amount that was the issue – it was that it was close to the convoy.”
The sheer scale of the bombing on July 4 was so great volunteers and other aid workers – who were queuing up in vehicles waiting for access to the frontline evacuation zone – were turned away due to safety concerns.
Martha said: “It was the only one we had to stop but by no means the only one with bombs – all have. Driving around Kharkiv they go off regularly.”
More than 10,000 deaths have been reported in the war to date and thousands of buildings around Kharkiv have been damaged or destroyed.
The future remains uncertain but the evacuations by brave volunteers working for international aid groups continue.
Martha, who usually works on a marine research vessel, has no plans to come home any time soon.
She was in the Pacific Ocean when Covid-19 broke out and ended up in Ukraine by chance after returning home to stay with her mum Joanna in Perthshire.
She had just finished her latest contract, as a deck hand on board a millionaire’s sailing boat in the Mediterranean.
Martha said: “I’d just come home to Perthshire when a friend phoned and asked if I wanted to go to the Ukrainian border the following day to help deliver a van of aid. I said, ‘OK.’”
That journey took her to the Polish village of Medyka, where a van-load of humanitarian aid was unloaded on March 1.
Martha, who has just signed up to stay in Ukraine for another six months, said: “My friend left with the van after five days and I was originally only going to stay for two weeks.”
But with long queues of people trying to cross the border to safety, she decided to help aid workers who were preparing food, teas and coffees around the clock.
Martha added: “I joined a random group at the border to help them out. It was so cold and it was a 24-hour thing. There were
kids and mums, disabled and elderly queuing there.”
When the border queues eventually dwindled, Martha turned her attention to helping those staying in Ukraine.
There was lots to do – from assisting the homeless, the sick and the hungry to organising specialist education camps to help children who have been traumatised by what they have witnessed.
As news spread about the war, people started arriving from all over the world with cash they had raised to help Ukrainians.
Martha said: “I don’t know how many thousands of pounds I got in the street from people who had come over with money and didn’t know how to spend it.
“I said to the ladies in the food kitchens, ‘What do you guys need?’ The people who had given money could then see where it was going.
“I was staying in a refugee camp, as we had a storage space there. Then someone said, ‘We have a spare van, do you want
to use it?’ I realised I wanted to be here for a long time. I stayed in the van with Ukrainian people. It has been pretty random.
“Then, six weeks ago, I got a place in Irpin. I’ve now taken on an apartment there for six months. I have a proper base, with a shower and a toilet and I can wash my clothes.”
When she’s not on frontline evacuations and other duties, Martha volunteers with an aid team started by ex-British Army Corporal Andy Den, who has worked tirelessly collecting and delivering donations of humanitarian, medical and any other kind of aid needed.
Martha said Andy, 48, who is in contact with volunteers all over the UK, can source almost anything that is needed.
She added: “He’s amazing. He gets the aid and doesn’t hold on to it. He wants it out.”
Andy recently became the only foreigner to receive a medal from an anti-corruption group to honour his team’s voluntary work in the country.
To make a donation to the team's work in Ukraine, click here.
