'We are still here, after one year, we still have hope."
Father Vitaliy Novak is back on the road, as he always is. He is driving the 800km route from one Ukrainian city, Lviv, to another, Odessa.
This might seem like quite the mission, but he's used to it now. Since the start of the war Father Novak has driven more than 100,000 miles all across his war-torn country trying to help as many people as possible whose lives have been turned upside down by Russia's brutal invasion.
"We responded from the first day when the war started, with a humanitarian response all over the east and south of Ukraine," Father Novak explains from his truck.
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"We distribute humanitarian aid in the villages and cities that are most affected by the war. We help people with food and supplies and find hostels for families with children who are running away from the frontline."
As well as being a priest, Father Novak is the chief executive of Depaul Ukraine, a charity that was set up in 2007 to help homeless people and rough sleepers in Ukraine. From the day Russian armed forces first made their way into Ukraine in February 2022, the charity's remit - and its workload - have expanded dramatically.
"We believe we have helped 400,000 people since the start of the war. The need is still huge. People are calling our charity hotline all the time but we can only answer one in every 15 requests," says Father Novak.
"If you have to move out of your home, but the war is still going on, you cannot plan your future or think about your future and starting again. If you lost members of your family, your children or your husband, we see so much trauma. We try to help as many people as we can."
Operating as a major national charity during a war is not easy and Father Novak and his 153-strong team have had to come up with innovative ways of getting help to people. In Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, volunteers have used bicycles - Vitaliy calls them 'Bicycle Angels' - to transport supplies to housebound people, cut off by a lack of public transport and fuel shortages.
Elsewhere they have set up humanitarian centres for displaced people in Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkiv and are now focussed on rebuilding the huge number of properties that have been damaged by Russian shells.
"We got through the winter. Now we are coming back to cities and installing windows," he adds in a booming voice as he drives, "this is incredible. We are able to start restoring people's lives."
Understandably the gargantuan efforts Father Novak has gone to himself have taken a personal toll. He said at the end of 2022, with the war ongoing, he had to take a moment to recharge and find the strength to continue his work going into a deeply uncertain new year.
"All of us in Ukraine are traumatised now, everybody is hit by this situation," he explains.
"I had to reflect before the end of last year, when the war was not finishing, I had to regroup and start again. I thought this is my reality now, so I put more prayers in and decided to give my body and my spirit to this cause. I had travelled more than 100,000 miles across Ukraine to set up and organise things. It was exhausting so I had to regroup and start again.
"I said to myself if I want to celebrate victory I have to keep pushing this. This is why we are doing this. We could not do this if it was senseless."
Despite the enormous trauma Ukrainians have endured, Father Novak says that there is less fear now. He adds: "We have overcome all this, people have less fear now. If you compare the first days when the rockets and the missiles came in everyone ran. Now we experience the same hits, but there are no queues of people running. They are still trying to terrorise us with this style of war but it doesn't work anymore.
"At the start the news was about people running into bomb shelters, now we don't take pictures of what's happening. Yes it is dangerous and you have to take care but people don't want to give them this opportunity to terrorise us with fear anymore."
Father Novak says his team's work would not be possible without the support of the international community who continue to send aid to Ukraine.
"Without the UK and the US and the international community we would not survive, without that support and solidarity. You have stayed with us. Everybody contributed to help us from the first day. We got through the winter. Now we are coming back to cities and we are able to start restoring people's lives."
Today Liverpool will host the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest. It's a spectacle that should have played out in Ukraine, but Father Novak says the UK was always going to be the second best option if it couldn't take place in his home nation.
"You are welcoming our country and our issue in your country and your city. Everyone in Liverpool is a little bit Ukrainian now. I'm happy that it is going on, it doesn't matter where, it is about the spirit.
"Singing is the healing action. Many songs were written during the war here. Through singing and through culture people express the spirit. If you do not keep going with the culture then there is no reason to fight.
"If all of us stand up for democracy, for freedom, for the values we share we can do this. It's not easy but we can do it. Everything is possible."
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