British Expeditionary
Aid & Rescue
UKRAINE
ABOUT US
British Expeditionary Aid & Rescue was founded in March 2022. Ten days after the full scale invasion, Elizabeth paused her career in technology and drove alone to Ukraine. With a Second World War family legacy - her grandfather having served in the British Special Forces (SOE) and her Polish grandmother having been forced to leave her homeland - it felt important that she act and respond to Russia's invasion.
After witnessing the inaction of large international organisations she, together with some other Brits, decided to create an independent, quick-response unit. Over the course of 3 years, members of the team included men and women, both British and Ukrainian, from a wide variety of backgrounds depending on the project being executed.
Our ethos was to uncompromisingly get things done and solve the most critical issues facing Ukrainian people as a result of Russia's war.
FRONTLINE EVACUATION
In early 2022, we went to the eastern Donbas to evacuate people who were trapped in the face of Russian advancing troops. These were primarily people who were bedridden or disabled, but also included families who had no vehicle to escape in. We evacuated people from the Donbas frontline - Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Toretsk - operating up to 1km from the line of contact on a daily basis.
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In late 2022, the successful Ukrainian southern counter-offensive liberated huge areas. The Russians, after withdrawing to the south bank of the Dnipro River, started heavily shelling Kherson city and the north bank. Having endured 8 months of Russian occupation, people there suddenly had to flee their homes. In early 2023, we relocated to the southern front to evacuate people from this area.
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In total, we executed specialist evacuations - going to individual people's homes, preparing them for the journey, often carrying them out on soft stretchers - for 400 people. Evacuating these people often freed their younger relatives who were caring for them to also leave and escape the Russian advance.
DRINKING WATER
During the Ukrainian southern counter-offensive the Russians, before withdrawing, tried to make it impossible for Ukrainian life to return. They shot down drinking water towers, blew up water pipes and poisoned wells with dead dogs or their own dead soldiers.
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In April 2023, we started to install water barrels in liberated villages and regularly filling them with drinking water. Then, in June 2023, the Russians destroyed the Nova Kakhovka Dam. Overnight, the resultant flooding contaminated the water supply of every village, town and city along the Dnipro River in Kherson oblast. Wells also started to test positive for Cholera. People were terrified and desperate. Within a matter of days, we went from delivering water to 1,000 people in 11 villages - to delivering water to 30,000 people across 36 villages, towns and cities. In total, we delivered over half a million litres.
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We also designed and implemented a self-sufficiency model, where we assembled and gave water carrying equipment to each of the villages. As a result, they were no longer reliant on others to maintain their drinking water supply. We liaised with local governments to ensure the villages' free access to safe wells. For Kherson city, we handed over our water deliveries to the official water utility, Vodakanal.
RECONSTRUCTION
Despite having worked across numerous frontline areas, we were shocked by the sheer level of destruction in the liberated areas of Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts. The Russians had deliberately razed some villages to the ground; every single civilian had fled or been killed.
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In September 2023, we started to rebuild villages that the Russians had attempted to erase. We hired local Ukrainian builders, which ensured we had expertise on how to rebuild Ukrainian homes and also created employment in an area where the economy had been destroyed.
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We completed our final major reconstruction project in December 2024.
PRESS COVERAGE
Our work has anonymously had international coverage by BBC News, The New York Times, Le Monde, Sky News, The Washington Post and in the award-winning documentary film Dear Beautiful Beloved
Podcast:
Click here to listen
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GALLERY
Our Final Project
CONTACT US
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We concluded our final project at the end of 2024 and so, following 3 years of work in Ukraine, we returned to the UK.
Our involvement in Ukraine continues, so should you wish to you are very welcome to contact us via the following email address:​
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