Voice from Ukraine: We need your help

The time has come to make our re-entry into Ukraine. Everything is packed, new volunteers have claimed their seats in the land rovers, and their convoy of four-by-fours, stacked to the roof with equipment and supplies, will be leaving the UK any day now.

When they reach the mainland, they will rendezvous with us and we drive into Ukraine as a unit.

Anyway, this week, I want to use this space to make a direct appeal for help from home. Afterwards, I will give you a picture of the war through a wider lens, and discuss some of the most crucial military points on the map at the moment.

A word on our return

THE last few weeks have been a frantic mix of sourcing, packing gear and organising donations.

Most of my time over the last seven to ten days has been spent laying the preparations for our EOD specialists who, over the next few months, will be rotating in and out of the Cargo 200 teams. Where there is conflict, there will be Cargo 200 teams.

We have a meeting arranged with the Ministry on February 2 to establish exactly what part our people will play.

The day before that, on February 1, we will be running a training day with a UK-based charity.

We will give out 50 Ifak tourniquets – pieces of life-saving equipment to halt bleeding – and we will conduct a training with the aim of teaching 50 people who exactly to use these things when called for.

Everyone who leaves the session will have gained the skills to apply a tourniquet, making them another potential life-saver. Those who prove their competence will receive a certificate in recognition of this.

Those are the short-term plans, anyhow. But we have a long-haul ahead of us.

Help from home

AS I said, it is a long-haul that lies before us. There is a lot of work to be done. More than we could conceivably ever do. However, we want to make as big an impact as we possibly can.

To do that, we need as much help as possible.

So, addressing each of you directly, we need your help.

If you want to offer Legenda financial aid, or think you have a set of skills that could be of assistance to us, please reach out and contact me.

You will be able to see where your aid is going by tracking us on Instagram. I will leave hyperlinks to the relevant pages at the bottom of the column. Believe me when I say this; money and expertise are what save lives.

The war through a wider lens

IN terms of the major military situations across the country, there has not been a lot happening in terms of bigger pushes. However, recent death toll figures suggest that the human cost of this war is more grotesque than many would have thought.

The morbid numbers indicate that Russian losses could be as high as 180,000, Ukrainian 60,000. It is really hard to know for certain. But, whatever the figures, the magnitude of the tragedy is unfathomable.

North, south and east

THE Wagner group seem to have taken the salt mines around Soledar. They are likely going to try to encircle the city of Bakhmut. Their chances of successfully doing this, however, are very low.

To think that they are just going to charge down the highway and besiege Bakhmut is unrealistic to the point of being delusional. But this is what a lot of the Russian military bloggers are writing about at the moment.

In the north, a little higher on the map, around the area of Kreminna – not to be confused with Crimea – it seems that there the Ukrainians are making incremental advances through a forest on the outskirts of the city.

Why is that important? Because, basically, if that line breaks just north of Soledar and Sivers’k, the Russians ground line of communication will be severed and they will probably be forced to move around 40km back – and that will leave them just about back where they started. For them, that would be a complete catastrophe.

A 240 degree front

THERE is real paranoia over the formation of a 240 degree front – a war on the north, east and south.

Will the Russians attempt this? I guess the stage is theirs.

I – along with the rest of Ukraine – hope that that does not happen. I know that I certainly would not want to be in Kyiv while a three-front assault was launched. There would be an massive rush to get out of the country. The prospect of being encircled by thousands of troops, with no escape, is a nightmarish one. Hundreds of thousands would run for the border.

It would be chaos.

However, my own personal opinion would be that if the Russian did try that, then they would have to accept an absolute bloodbath would ensue, for both sides.

The Ukrainians have more weapons coming in from the west than ever before, and they have built up amazing fortifications and trenches over the last year. Their ranks are full of young men, ruthlessly conscripted at the beginning of the war. Most of them are well trained now. Those trenches are full of them. Like I said; an absolute bloodbath

l Email: info@legenda-archaeology.com

l Instagram: www.instagram.com/ legenda.ukraine/?hl=en