News Story

A Scot who has spent time in Ukraine clearing landmines and investigating Russian war crimes is preparing to travel to the war-torn country for the 20th time behind the wheel of an ambulance.

Andro Mathewson, 30, will drive a 4×4 from the UK to the Ukrainian city of Lviv before handing it over to the charity Driving Ukraine, which has delivered 391 vehicles to Ukraine since the invasion began.

The vehicle will then be given to a casualty evacuation team, who will use it to retrieve wounded soldiers and civilians from the front lines in the east and south of the country.

Here an evacuation attempt is made every nine minutes.

Mr Mathewson, who was born to a Scottish father and Bulgarian mother and lives in Scotland with his partner, intends make the 1,318-mile journey in the company of his cousin, Dino Kirov, whose skills as a car mechanic will help ensure the second-hand vehicle gets there in one piece.

But he first needs to raise £9,300 to buy the vehicle, cover delivery and administrative costs, and fit a Ukrainian-made drone detector.

This is a vital addition given drones are now the leading cause of death for medics and evacuation crews near the front line.

“Most Ukrainians don’t have a choice about this fight,” he said.

“Most of us in Europe do, and a lot of people are choosing to look away from what I’d call one of the clearest cases of right and wrong in my lifetime.

“I have the choice to help, so I’m going to keep doing it for as long as it takes.”

Mr Mathewson first travelled to Ukraine in April 2021, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, and worked with the landmine-clearance charity Halo trust to clear mined land around the city of Kramatorsk.

He has been back 18 times since initially doing mine clearance work but then to help investigate Russian war crimes.

This saw him work with the Centre for Information Resilience, helping Ukrainian police, security services and prosecutors build the evidence base on Russian atrocities.

“This kind of work means watching torture, executions, sometimes hundreds of deaths a week, in videos online,” Mr Mathewson said.

“You get used to it. Mostly what’s left is anger, and a kind of numbness.

“There’s things that I’ve seen that will never leave my brain sometimes I think about it and see it when I don’t want to, and it makes me very angry and very sad.

“And even then, despite me having seen these things, I can’t even comprehend what it must be for Ukrainians.”

Mr Mathewson is now employed helping source and deliver weapons and equipment to Ukraine’s armed forces through Stark Defence.

He will make the three-day drive across Europe in November as part of a convoy of 10 vehicles, all of which are being donated to Driving Ukraine.

The 30-year-old said he is anticipating “a lot of driving, a few sleepless nights” and said once they reach Ukraine they will be contending with “relatively rough” roads and long waits at checkpoints before they get to Lviv.

Driving Ukraine has so far delivered 391 vehicles across 61 convoys, run by more than 700 volunteers from over 30 countries, and has been recognised by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence for its work.

The 30-year-old said Ukraine constantly needs more evacuation vehicles due to the rate at which they get destroyed close to the front line.

“Unfortunately, these these vehicles don’t last very long,” he said.

“As soon as you go further east, the roads are just littered with destroyed vehicles.

“Maybe our vehicle will last one evacuation. That’s still going to save lives.

“Hopefully, it lasts hundreds and saves hundreds of lives.

“But if we have to do it again, I’m sure Dino will sign up for it again as well.”

So far Mr Mathewson has raised around a third of the funding he needs to buy the vehicle and cover the cost of the trip.

He has appealed for more donations, saying “any amount helps” in getting the lifesaving vehicle to the front lines.

“The UK has been one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in every single way, and I think every single person in the UK has a way to do that,” he said.

“This is one of the very easy ways to do it.”

For more information about the trip, and to donate, visit https://donorbox.org/andromathewson.