A black Mitsubishi Warrior is parked in the parking lot, with mud splatters on its body and bullet holes showing its recent past.
Oleg Lutsyk, looking at the rips in the metal on the driver’s side door, says “This could be shotgun”.
“But I believe it was from a mortar, some pieces of artillery or mortar ammunition that got into the vehicle.”
He points out a series smaller, rounder holes farther along.
“This one is definitely from some shotguns,” says he.
The pickup took several direct hits, rushing Ukrainian troops off the battlefield in their conflict with Russia.
Oleg is a part of the team that repairs the vehicle so it can return to the front lines.
It arrived in Ukraine as part of a convoy sent by the Scottish charity Pickups for Peace last year.
The 80th Air Assault Brigade of Ukraine received the donation. This unit was instrumental in leading the Kursk offensive, as Ukrainian troops advanced into Russian territory.
The pick-up truck played a crucial role in removing troops from the battlefield.
Mr Lutsyk said, “Fortunately, all of the soldiers who were present are alive.”
“Maybe a few of them got injured.” But they are all fine.”
The pick-up truck came from Norfolk. The father-and-son team of Keith and Ultan drove the vehicle across Europe. They described it as a “rollercoaster ride”.
This is one of many donated vehicles that have been brought into the country to help with the war effort.
The charity, which was started by farmers from Angus and Peebles in Wiltshire, has now transported 500 of these animals from Scotland and the UK.
A third charity, Car for Ukraine, contributed 4x4s to the effort from Wales.
The latest convoy was delivered by volunteers from Edinburgh, Perth, and Islay this week. This brings the total of drivers and passengers to over 800 – the youngest being 18 years old, and the oldest being 85.
The cars have been used in rescue missions, evacuations and anti-drone operations – and charities involved claim they have saved thousands of lives.
Andriy Kvalskyi is in charge of the Lviv District Military Administration. He keeps the convoys flowing smoothly and free from bureaucratic delays as they cross the borders.
He says that the vehicles are important for the troops, but the effects extend far beyond military aid.
“British Citizens come personally as drivers in the convoys. They act later as ambassadors for Ukraine and witness the state of the war in this nation,” he says.
As the volunteers discovered, Andriy’s town is safer than most in Ukraine, but it is still susceptible to drone and missile strikes.
He says that “they had to go to the shelter at the hotel many times.”
The Lviv administration is doing everything possible to encourage the flow UK vehicles through the city, and onto the battlefield. The car park outside the Lviv administration’s headquarters has been transformed into a grand handover area.
The volunteers will bring the vehicles to the front and meet with some of the soldiers that will be taking them forward.
After some speeches and ceremony, they are sent into battle almost immediately.
Derek Fleming says that all cars are in excellent condition when they are handed over.
Derek was born and raised in Aberdeenshire, Moray and has lived in Ukraine for 25 years. He has been involved in almost every convoy.
He said: “Some vehicles are 15 years old, but they are mechanically sound… And they go to different battalions.”
Some people immediately after the next day head to the East.
Details have emerged regarding where and how the vehicles were used.
Seven of these drones were donated to the 2nd Drone Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard. They have used them to defend Pokrovsk – a strategic transport hub which has been the focus of intense combat in recent months.
The Air Defence Forces of Western Ukraine has 25 more soldiers. Their role is to bring down Russian drones that threaten Lviv or the surrounding area.
One of the vehicles saved a group Ukrainian soldiers in Avdiyivka, eastern Ukraine. The town was reduced to rubble and then fell to the Russians by the end of this February.
A blue Ford Ranger was one of the 4x4s which arrived in early this year. Jeff and John, two volunteers from Northumberland, drove it.
Jeff, a British Army veteran, said: “Having lived most of my adult life in the military, it was nice to be able help other soldiers even in a small manner.”
Ford’s 14-year-old car still looked brand new.
On its windscreen was a yellow AA sticker, and a white one on the back indicated that it was from the UK.
Few weeks later, it was reduced to a charred shell.
The video taken by those on the ground after a grenade explosion outside Pokrovsk shows the utter destruction of the building. The paint was burned off, the exterior was destroyed and the interior was incinerated. Thankfully, no one was injured.
These images are sobering to the staff in Lviv, who are working hard to send even more vehicles to the front.
More of them survive
Andrey Ohinok, a Ukrainian driver who is part of the Jackie Chan Volunteers, a group of hardened Ukrainian drivers who take pick-ups to the battlefield where regular troops cannot.
He says that it’s important to keep their combat comrades moving.
“The more mobile the animals are, the longer they will live,” he says.
He is not alone in speaking in plain, but dramatic terms about their work.
Ira Savka coordinates the charity’s Lviv operations, including the distribution of the more than PS3m in aid that has slowly arrived inside the vehicles.
She says, “We hope that we are doing the correct job at the right time and for the right reason.”
Few miles from the place where she is talking, a scene is unfolding that brings the work, the time, and the cause into sharp and painful focus for the citizens of the city.
The yellow and blue flags that are fluttering above the graves of Ukraine’s war dead are massive and continue to grow every week.
As the full-scale war approaches 1,000 days, it is a brutal remembrance – if any was needed – of all that this war has cost their country.
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