10 October 2025 – Sunflower Scotland delivers an armoured Mercedes Sprinter van to “Strength for Freedom” in Kherson. This local local charity is evacuating women and children from nearby villages. Because of the recent surge of kamikaze drones, these areas have become a kill zone. In addition, we delivered gifts for children and medical supplies to one of Kherson’s hospitals.
We would like to thank all our donors and supporters. This trip was very important for Kherson’s residents, and your donations are making a tremendous impact. Please read on to see why.
Things have become much worse
This was our third trip to Kherson, after November 2024 and May 2025. This time, when we set off from the nearby city of Mykolaiv, we could see that things in Kherson have become much worse.
Russia has been relentlessly destroying Kherson and all the people in it. They start the day with sending gliding bombs, each with 1000 kg of explosives, to fly in the city centre and destroy civilian buildings (pictured). After that come ballistic missiles. While the big explosives land, kamikaze drones fly in every 10-15 minutes and hunt any stand-alone cars or people waiting at the bus stop.
We were in the city centre, surrounded by blocks of flats. Lound “booms” were heard every 5-10 minutes left and right from us. The buildings were shielding us from the blasts.
Despite all the horror, life still goes on. We were sitting in a tiny coffee shop having coffees. Oleg ordered a latte, while Ihor went for a flat white. This all felt absolutely surreal, like we were sitting in an IMAX and watching a war movie.
But it was in fact a horror film because women and children were bing killed. Evey day Kherson pronounces new victims dead and wounded. Here’s a couple of photos from the latest Russian attack on an apartment block in Kherson.
For security reasons it’s only possible to use officially approved photos of Kherson. We wouldn’t dare to go around taking photos – we’d be arrested.
“Strength for Freedom”
Ihor, Dima and Rostislav (Rost) work for “Strength for Freedom”: a local charity based in Kherson. They been tirelessly working non-stop helping people to survive the horror of the war brought about by Russia. They evacuate people from danger zones, building a safe play and study space for children, driving immobile patients to hospitals for treatment and helping hospitals.
We have seen it all with our own eyes, and we brought them some help from Scotland.
Evacuations
Kherson is separated from the Russian army by the Dnipro river. It protects the city, but the distance to the Russians is very short. The parts of Kherson area near the water and the surrounding villages have become a kill zone. The Russians shell it with artillery, bombs, missiles, mortar, drones, and whatever else they have in their deadly arsenal.
They target everybody: Ukrainian soldiers, civilians and children. Houses go down one after the other.
It’s remarkable that some people remained in their homes in this areas until now. The main reason is poverty: they simply have no money to go anywhere. The second reason is they are psychologically traumatised beyond our comprehension. Having lived under barrage for months they acclimatised to this living hell. But eventually they call for help.
Ihor, Dima and Rost drive an armoured van to evacuate those people. They know all the side-streets and shortcuts. They know which road is a bit safer today, and which to avoid. But the risk is incredibly high: it’s literally Russian roulette.
People rely on this van every day to get to safety. But one van is simply not enough for the hundreds or even thousands of people who need evacuation. Ihor and his team desperately needed a second van.
A few months back, marines from the Ukrainian 36th brigade asked us to help Ihor’s team. They said the charity was trustworthy.
Armoured van: from Scotland to Kherson
In October, thanks to a wonderful business from Edinburgh, Sunflower was able to buy an armoured van. We serviced it, put on new tyres, and personally delivered to Kherson.
Dima came to Lviv to meet us, and we drove together to Kherson.
Safe children’s space
Ihor’s team organised a safe play and study underground facility for children. Kherson City Council provided them a dark and dump unused basement. Ihor and the volunteers cleaned it up, plastered the walls and painted them in bright colours. They set up a classroom with little desks where children can study during air raids. Next to it, there’s a crafts class where kids work with their hands and make Ukrainian national dolls.
For entertainment, they built a play room for the kids to spend free time and have some fun. There’s also a gym.
Gifts for Children from a Scottish author
Sunflower brought 70 wonderful colouring books “Within The Wisdom of My Soul”. Developed by Yoda Christou, an author and spiritual coach from Edinburgh. These books offer 52 beautiful and thoughtful designs. They can work either as colouring drawings for children, or as calming and thought-provoking meditations for adults.
Social taxi
The Strength for Freedom team is providing a “social taxi” service in Kherson. Dima drives a disabled van with a wheelchair. Every day he receives a few requests. He takes old and disabled people to hospital for treatment, and after that brings them back home. People get this service absolutely for free.
It’s a tough job. During the night, Russian drones drop small land mines on the streets. Dima has to drive carefully, not to be blown up.
Very often Dima’s patients have mobility issues. Either because of the illness, age or the trauma. In these cases, Rost helps Dima to take the person down from their apartment, into the car and to the hospital.
To support this work – absolutely crucial for Kherson’s community – we donated a set of all season tyres (for the coming winter).
Rehabilitation of the wounded
Rita, a physio therapist from one of Kherson’s hospitals, sent a cry for help to Sunflower. She explained that the Russians stole all rehabilitation equipment. Kherson was under occupation from February until September 2022, and when the Russians were withdrawing they took everything.
Sunflower’s team asked people in Edinburgh for help. Four families donated their exercise machines (all almost brand new) absolutely for free. Thank you!
When we arrived in Kherson and met Rita in her hospital, we did not expect to see this. The rehabilitation room was almost empty. There was only one exercise bike, which was very old and rusty. Rita and her colleagues were really happy to receive the machines from Scotland, they made such a big difference.
Ihor, Dima and members of staff from the hospital unloaded the donated machines and put them into the physiotherapy room straight away. This donation will help Rita, and will help many people who were injured or wounded to get better.
Recognition from the 30th Marine Corps
While we were there, Ukrainian Marines from 30th Marine Corps asked us to stop and meet them.
Previously we helped the people of Kherson by donating medical supplies to the Kherson regional hospital. We donated an ambulance, defibrillators, tourniquets and other supplies to the frontline medics.
In recognition of this and previous works, they awarded to Sunflower Scotland a memorable plaque. We were truly honoured to receive this award.
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