7/25/2023 0 Comments Tinderbox serb nationalistSo when Paul offered me this, I thought about it for a few days and then said, ‘yeah, let’s go for it.’” “I’ve been doing this on a much smaller scale since 2014, arranging equipment for friends and doing stuff like that for the guys who were fighting. “When things started ramping up in early February, UWC President Paul Grod asked me if I would be interested in leading this project,” Potichnyj says. His experience led UWC’s leadership to turn to him to lead their Unite With Ukraine initiative when they looked to expand their support last year. Potichnyj, a Toronto native and member of Canada’s 1.4 million-strong Ukrainian diaspora, has been involved in organizing deliveries of supplies to Ukraine since 2014, when Russian-backed militants in the country’s east first began fighting. “Something we started discussing in October is now almost ready to go-that’s pretty cool.” “It’s actually kind of surreal,” says Potichnyj, looking at the row of Spartans. He is still somewhat in disbelief that his team has managed to pull it off. The delivery is the result of more than six months of effort by UWC organizers, chief among them Andrew Potichnyj, who has come along to present the vehicles to their recipients. They are being delivered to Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces in a landmark package that organizers hope will mark a new phase of critical aid shipments to support upcoming Ukrainian operations against the Russian invasion. The vehicles-a mix of FV103 Spartan and FV432 APCs, all British-made-have been procured by the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), a Canada-based nongovernmental organization that is working with Ukraine’s armed forces. The early March chill hangs in the still air.Īmong the wreckage sits something new: 25 armored personnel carriers (APCs), their metal plating gleaming in the sunlight. Rusted equipment and half-shattered windows dominate the building, likely unused for decades. KHARKIV, Ukraine-The abandoned industrial warehouse on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, looks like any other in the country.
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