A short introduction to US Marine and humanitarian Mark Cary.

My fourth trip here has come to an end and I am now safely in Poland. My last day in Ukraine was one I wish had occurred much earlier. My colleague Hymie Rutherford and I traveled about 40 minutes northwest of Kyiv to the village of Brodoyanka.

Good morning from Ukraine. After our return from Kherson we followed up with two other volunteers we had met in Kharkiv about assisting a church group in Kyiv. They have identified several families in real need in the Kyiv region.

Good morning, it is snowing here in the village of Sonyachne. The last report I sent was as we were dropping stoves in Kherson in the dark. Since then, we drove 9 hours back to Kyiv, loaded up more stoves provided by you all and your amazing support.

Last night on one of the volunteer message boards, our Australian friend Asher put out a call for an empty van to pick up 15 wood burning stoves and accessories in Dnipro and deliver them to liberated areas in Kherson.

Quick update. Things have been moving fast as usual. A friend on Instagram said I looked tired. I suppose that is true, but I am only here a short time, and I am not in flooded trenches in sub 0 temps under 24/7 artillery fire and close quarters battle. So I can’t complain.

Had a quick admin day which included an oil change and new lights for my van. More importantly we finished obtaining supplies for our contact Edward from the Netherlands.

After our successful mission to Mykolaev we headed 90 minutes south to the very recently liberated Kherson Coty and Kherson Oblast. The Russians had occupied this area since the first week of the war and began a program of forced Russification, deportations, torture and mass killings.

Wednesday, we loaded up the van with cold weather supplies that we already had from donations, and then at 0530 we visited one of the warehouses of my friend Oleg’s organization, Forever With Ukraine.

We have had an administrative day of sorts, vehicle maintenance, meetings, mission planning etc. The highlight was last night when our neighbor Marina and her grandson Daniel invited us for a dinner of Borsch and wine.

We departed Kharkiv yesterday and headed back toward Kyiv. I heard through the grapevine that ParaCrew, the organization I worked with the second time I was here was folding up shop and disbanding. Mainly due to a lack of funding.

During our quick stay in Kharkiv, we met up with my friend Anton, who is an IT specialist turned soldier and volunteer aid worker. I was able to give him a very specific set of plate carriers for his body armor that I brought from the US.