This is the incredible moment a Ukrainian man fighting in the war against Russia thanks an eight-year-old girl from Swansea for the gift of a helmet. Alex, from Cherkassy in central Ukraine, is not a member of the army - before the war he ran a small bar in Kyiv - but he has still been called up to serve and protect his country and fight against Russian soldiers in the war.
After taking a short leave of absence to be with his wife Mariia as she gave birth to the couple’s baby son, Arie; 40-year-old Alex was preparing himself to fight in the war when he realised that supplies for civilian battalions were low and he was not going to be given a helmet. He soon informed Never Surrender UA, a charity set up in the UK to arrange for donations and assistance to be sent from the UK to Ukraine, to tell them what he needed and crossed his fingers that someone would be able to help him in some way.
At the same time, kind-hearted Dakota Mitchell from West Cross, Swansea, was selling bunches of lavender she’d picked from her grandmother’s garden at her school’s summer fayre and was going around Mumbles Fest, a community music festival in Oystermouth Castle, with a bucket and two friends, asking people in the crowd for donations for Ukraine. You can get the biggest Swansea news stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
