Scottish gardener completes fifth trip to Ukraine to deliver vehicles to military

Andrew Harrold first visited Ukraine in March last year

When Andrew Harrold’s Ukrainian guest, Mariia, told him her brother-in-law had been killed in combat, but she was unable to travel home for the funeral, the Scot wanted to help her create something in memory.

The pair decided to source a much-needed 4x4 vehicle and donate it to the military unit of Mariia’s brother-in-law, with his name on the side. Harrold packed it with aid and drove the vehicle alone for 17 hours across Europe to deliver it to the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Now, Harrold, a landscape gardener from Morayshire, has completed his fifth trip to Ukraine, after launching a drive to acquire vehicles for the country’s military.

Andrew Harrold, with Ukrainian championship boxer, Denys Berincyk.

Mariia and her family lived with Mr Harrold at his rural property for a year through the Homes for Ukraine scheme from May 2022. But when her brother-in-law died the following Christmas, she found it difficult to move on.

"She was quite upset,” said Harrold. “We thought of things that we could do occupy her and take her mind off things, so we decided to raise money and buy a vehicle for his unit. We put his name on it, so that he was back with this unit.”

After taking the first vehicle to Ukraine three months later, he has since made contact with other military units who put in their own requests for 4x4s. He has been able to source cheap or free vehicles from the UK, which he pays for through crowdfunding. He then drives from his home to Ukraine, where he delivers both the vehicle and a shipment of aid.

"I have a routine,” Harrold said. “It is about six hours to Newcastle where I get the ferry, so I stop at the Morrisons there and stock up on pasta meal deals and put them in the seat beside me. Then I sleep the entire time I’m on the ferry and at 10am, I start my drive across Europe. I only stop to refuel and to go to the toilet.”

Andrew Harrold and two of the vehicles he has taken to Ukraine to donate to military units.

On arrival in Ukraine, he usually stays with a friend of a friend who owns a hotel in the western city of Uman, then stocks up on additional aid at a Ukrainian supermarket and travels on to Kherson, which was at one time occupied by Russian troops. There, Harrold works with a local grassroots group to deliver medicines to vulnerable people – and helps an organisation that feeds street dogs, many of which have been abandoned by owners forced to flee the region, which is close to the front line, something Harrold has experienced.

"It's right on the front line,” he said. “Since the war started, Kherson has been shelled and bombed every single day. If you take the dogs for a walk at night, you can hear the shells going over, missiles going past and you can see the explosions.

"In November, when I went to Kherson, a mortar landed on the road and a Ukrainian truck in front of us was blown in half. Some shrapnel got stuck in our vehicle.” He added: “I have the body armour and the helmet, so I’m all set.”

On his trips to Ukraine. Harrold has met a Ukrainian Olympic boxing medallist, Denys Berinchyk, who was on leave from the army to compete in an international competition, and a 96-year-old neighbour of a friend in a village outside Kyiv who single-handedly removed landmines planted in her vegetable garden by Russian soldiers.

"It's an eye opener,” he said. “Some people you meet are wonderful.”

Harrold is crowdfunding for his next trip to Ukraine, where he has requests for two more vehicles. Donations can be made here.