A photographer from York has been telling us about his new job with Fire Aid helping Ukrainian firefighters dealing with Russian attacks.
Edward Matthews, who is documenting life in and around Kyiv, says he’s seen some terrible incidents which take their toll on the mental health of the emergency services.
He’s been describing what it’s actually like to live in a city under attack from the air in an interview for YorkMix Radio‘s Sunday Late Show (Sunday 5 October 10pm)
Edward is now living full time in Kyiv combining his work with a charity alongside making a special documentary about the Ukrainian Emergency Services
“I am now working directly with a British charity called Fire Aid. So previously I was working as a freelance. Now I am the project manager of Brave Mind.
“We deliver independent mental health support services to Ukrainian firefighters.
“We also provide equipment to the State Emergency Services. To date, we’ve delivered 151 fire trucks and over 250,000 pieces of equipment.”
It’s fairly calm on the day we link up to chat but things can change in an instant.
Edward told us: “So the last few weeks have been particularly difficult here.
“Every month there’s maybe two or three major attacks from hundreds of drones and ballistic weapons and even cruise missiles.
“Every time there’s a major attack I join the press office of the State Emergency Services. We travel to some of the sites . I basically document what’s happened.
“So in a lot of these places, where missiles hit, they are often mass casualty events.
“Imagine a Grenfell tower style incident, but have that two or three times a month!
There could be 14 or 15 locations around the city which would be considered a major incident with fire or casualties and they’re really horrific places to be, so it’s all pretty traumatic.”
“The reason why we go is because it’s really important to understand what the firefighters and the rescuers are facing, so we can then tailor our support package to help them.
“We’ve been there in Kyiv and in other cities like Kharkiv, closer to the front line.
“Earlier in the year, we visited a forest fire. There was unexploded ordnance all over it. It was within artillery range too as well as FPV (First Person View Drone) range and there was a point where we realised that they (Russians) were specifically targeting the firefighters.
“There was a number of glide bombs that came very close to the forest while we were there. So it’s a really useful insight into what the firefighters are facing on a daily basis.
We asked Edward what he was using the footage and pictures he captured for?
“So we’re using this content for promoting Brave Minds, both internally in Ukraine and externally, to international donors. So the images get used for fundraising purposes, and then they also get used for producing materials for encouraging firefighters to get support through our programme.
“It’s 100% free for the end user, so our beneficiaries don’t have to pay anything, and our psychologists are all paid for through the funding. All the money that we get through donations goes directly into supporting rescuers in their mental health journey. S
“I’m also producing a feature length documentary film about Ukrainian firefighters to put out some high quality English language content about rescuers as well.”
And how does Edward think the war will end?
“I think it’s very difficult to say, because some weeks feel really good and then other weeks you get news like say Romanian airspace has been violated. There’s definite concern that this could escalate.
“Obviously, people in Ukraine just want peace, but peace is very difficult to define. Peace has to be on the terms of Ukraine.”
You can hear more of this interview at 10pm this Sunday (5 October) on YorkMix Radio and it will available after on the Listen Again feature
