A UK Website About The War in Ukraine – The Struggle for Independence

Header image attribution: Dsns.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A UK Website About The War in Ukraine

While I continue to write about other subjects that interest me, it is fair to say that this website has partially morphed, hopefully temporarily, into a website about the war in Ukraine.

I am probably the only UK alternative media website blogger regularly posting about the war in Ukraine.

View all posts on this website about the war in Ukraine

Click or touch the image below to view all posts tagged with Ukraine.

Why a UK website about the war in Ukraine?

The war in Ukraine hit a deep nerve within me. It brought back memories of stories I heard from my parents about the suffering they endured during World War II, when Poland was invaded first by Nazi Germany and soon after by the Soviet Union. Both my parents suffered great hardship.

There is no need for me to go into very specific details. In summary, my father was captured during the Warsaw Uprising, where he was a combatant and was imprisoned first in Stutthof and then in Buchenwald concentration camps. His first wife was executed in Auschwitz.

As the war drew to a conclusion in Europe, the Buchenwald Concentration Camp was partially evacuated by the SS. My father was one of those evacuees. During the evacuation, he witnessed a disagreement between the guards. One faction wished to execute the prisoners, while the other wanted to free them. In the end, the guards decided to vote on it. Common sense won, and the prisoners were set free and made their way to the US Army lines.

On an aside, my father was from an ethnic Polish family in Olshana (Polish: Olszana), Russian Empire. Today, Olshana is known as Vilshana in the Cherkasy Oblast of Ukraine.

My mother worked for the Deutsche Reichspost (German Post Office) as a counter clerk in Kraków. As the war was drawing to a close, she was compulsorily evacuated by the post office authorities into Germany. When the war ended, she found herself within the American zone of occupation and like many Poles, she chose to enter a displaced persons camp administered by the American forces. That is where she met my father. In the coming year my parents were moved through many of these camps in Germany, and Austria and finally to Porto San Giorgio, Italy.

In 1946, my parents received clearance to enter the United Kingdom and duly arrived that year by ship. They were placed in camp accommodation at the Morfa Conwy Polish Resettlement Camp in Wales. They married in London in 1947.

During the war, one of my mother’s brothers was taken by the Soviet authorities and sent to a labour camp in the Soviet Union. Just one letter from him was received by his family in Poland. He asked for gloves to be sent because his hands were frostbitten due to forced labour in freezing temperatures. For decades, nothing further was heard, despite my mother contacting both the British and Soviet Red Cross and sending a letter with a personal appeal to President Brezhnev of the USSR.

The British and Soviet red crosses replied, stating that no information was held, while the letter to President Brezhnev went unanswered.

When Glasnost came, and the Soviet Union fell apart, the British Red Cross received word from the Russian Red Cross about the death in the Soviet Union of my mother’s brother, which had occurred in 1942.

Are you seeing a pattern emerging from the Russian playbook?

Russia has plenty of form to draw upon when playing out its brutalities in Ukraine.

Charities and fundraisers helping Ukraine that I publicise on this website about the war in Ukraine

Internal Link: Car 4 Ukraine. Car for Ukraine is the original car-buying organisation that started in 2014 and is located in Ukraine. Visit Car 4 Ukraine’s website.

Internal Link: Posts about the Worthing Ukrainian Friends Network. This local charity assists Ukrainian refugees with settling into Worthing & Adur in West Sussex. Visit their Facebook Page.

Internal Link: Meet Combat Medic Brandon Mitchell at Hospitallers in Ukraine – Fundraising links. Brandon is a Canadian volunteer combat medic with the Hospitallers Medical Battalion of Ukraine. Visit his YouTube channel.

Internal link: Meet Tilde Addenbrooke in Ukraine. Tilde is a Swedish civilian volunteer working in Ukraine for the Swedish charity Quartermaster for Ukraine. Visit her Instagram account.

Internal Link: Meet Harley Whitehead – British Volunteer Certified EOD Technician in Ukraine. Harley is a certified British EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Technician who saves lives by supporting the Ukrainian Volunteer Army with mine-clearing operations. Visit his YouTube channel.

Internal Link: Posts about Johnny FD. Johnny FD is possibly the only U.S. YouTuber resident in Ukraine. Johnny FD is a U.S. blogger permanently living in Kyiv. Johnny is a friend of Ukraine and its people. YouTube channel.

Why I am able to blog about Ukraine and the war

I have over 20 years experience in building websites on a non-commercial basis*. South Coast View, based on the south coast of England, is a UK not-for-profit website into which I have incorporated my website about the war in Ukraine.

*on a non-commercial basis means that I build websites only for myself.

Andrzej is in NAFO – Who Are NAFO

Posts about Ukraine. View all posts about Ukraine.