UK volunteers intensify effort to help Ukrainian refugees against 'brat' Putin

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its eighth day, GB News East of England Reporter Amelia Harper spoke to volunteers in Cambridge who are sending supplies into Ukraine to help refugees and soldiers.

The collections were organised by Alicja Choroszy who has converted her house into a storage facility for supplies to be sent to the Ukraine-Poland border.

Volunteers created packs of donations for both Ukrainian soldiers and civilian refugees, including children fleeing the conflict.

Children who were helping with the supply packages were told to choose what children in a war zone might need to survive.

Alicja told her daughter to put together "a box for two children and make them happy, whatever they need".

She explained to GB News: "I woke up to the news and I was crying, that's all I was doing.

"I just couldn't do nothing. I couldn't sit down and watch the news and the more news I was watching the more overwhelmed I was. I just can't imagine being in that position. People were coming and coming and coming. Everyone cried" said the supplies coordinator."

Ukrainian volunteers also told GB News their reaction to the recent bombing of Kharkiv's Freedom Square.

Volunteer Alla Madich said: "It was destroyed completely with a bomb. I imagined how many people could be dying there so it was just sad and by a brat. It's horrible."

The supplies in Cambridge are being driven to refugees on Poland's border with Ukraine, where a handful of volunteers based there then drive into Ukraine to get the packs to soldiers.

Mikolaj Glowacki added: "So it took us around like two hours on the way to Ukraine. On the way back, we were actually escorted by the Ukraine police force to get to the border as fast as possible.

"We skipped all the the long queues, which were like around thirty to forty kilometres and there were checkpoints every like four to five kilometres. There were actually fireplaces with the big barrels they're putting stuff inside to just burn them and because it was -7C."

Speaking about how the supply effort is uniting communities across Europe, Mikolaj Glowacki said: "Once someone told me that if you save one person you're gonna save the whole world.

"If helping isn't what makes you human then i don't know what does."