From Mykolaiv to Kyiv and Kharkiv, second-hand cars, pickup trucks and minivans bought in Britain and still bearing the familiar UK number plates are on the frontline of the war in Ukraine.
The incongruous sight is thanks to a fighters’ fund established by Serhiy Prytula, 40, a Ukrainian actor and comedian, who made his name with a Little Britain-style sketch show Faina Yukraina (Nice Ukraine) but now acts as an alternative quartermaster to the Ukrainian armed forces.
The British vehicles are attractively priced, roughly half the cost of their equivalent makes on mainland Europe, as right-hand cars are not in high demand internationally, according to Prytula, speaking in his office in his headquarters in Kyiv, a six-storey office building taken over for the purposes of acting as a collection and distribution centre for donations.
He estimates that he currently receives about £7m a month in donations with which to stockpile and distribute military equipment, ranging from bulletproof vests and thermal telescopes to binoculars, drones, medical kits and electrical generators.
With a portion of those funds, the British cars are bought from both second-hand dealerships and individuals in the UK who will offer them for a cut price, sometimes accepting cryptocurrency as payment, before being ferried across the Channel and driven to Ukraine on the back of trucks – a journey of five to six days. They are then distributed across to the frontline to where Ukraine’s forces are most in need.
Twenty British cars have been dispatched so far – the vehicles have been given the nickname “hell rides” by the volunteers in Kyiv – and a further 20 are in the process of being purchased. The Prytula volunteer hub has passed a total of 60 vehicles from across Europe to the armed forces.
In Prytula’s office, there are fragments of a Russian jet, weapons and bloodstained military clothing, including a balaclava and gloves taken from Russian soldiers killed on the battlefield. He described the grisly collection as “feedback” as to the value of the cars.
He said: “It’s really helped because our units create mobile groups. And behind you, you can see a piece of Russian jet Su-34. That’s exactly a gift from our soldiers. We help them with a pickup and he destroyed this Russian plane and this was something like feedback for us.
“The first thing that they brought here was this piece of shit Russian jet and a piece of Russian Kalibr rocket and after that, I made a post on Facebook and I said you can bring here everything you want, ‘But no dead Russians here.’ The next day they brought clothing, a radio transmitter and hat from a Russian tank driver and after that they started sending everything they found on the bodies.”
Maksym Kostetskyi, who has been managing the purchase of vehicles from the UK, said demand from Ukrainian units was three times the level of supply, with units seeking cars, pickup trucks and SUVs.
He said: “There is a long waiting list. But we are very hopeful in that we have partners in the United Kingdom who are giving and providing the vehicles with lower prices.
“Especially for pickup trucks and used vehicles mostly. Yes, and these SUVs are usually like £4,000 or £5,000 each. Usually in Europe, people don’t buy them because they have right-hand drive, but during this time in the war times and in the field this is a great time to buy them.”
British cars were also used when Russian forces first invaded the east of Ukraine in 2014. “A lot of Ukrainian soldiers, they know how to drive this car with the steering wheel on the other side,” Prytula said.
When the cars are formally taken over by the Ukrainian army, their number plates will be blacked out. But in the early weeks of the war that has rarely happened, with the priority being to get the cars in action rather than deal with the paperwork.
Kostetskyi said: “We have partners over there that want to help Ukrainians and want to support all of us all the way they can. And we do believe that this is one of the biggest ways that the society and people of United Kingdom could support us as buying the same cars in other countries in the European Union costs twice as much.”
