“It’s like an act of protection!”

Black cassock, golden cross encrusted with red stones in hand, an Orthodox priest, Pope Taras, prays in front of two 4×4 cars leaving for the front. “We first pray to God to protect the people who will drive in this car, that is to say our soldiers, so that their guardian angel is with them.“There, in Lviv, in western Ukraine, the ritual is the same each time the car leaves: the man of the Church makes holy water rain on the hood and then inside the passenger compartment. already blessed about fifty vehicles. “This car can save the lives of soldiershe adds. We can quickly evacuate the wounded from this type of car, the classic ambulances will not arrive in the places where the guys are dying: you have to have a 4×4!

Five months after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, a certain weariness is setting in in international opinion. But the war is still raging, and the Ukrainian population continues to collect what to help the soldiers at the front: food, money, but also vehicles. In Lviv, a group of civilians coordinated by the city’s National Philharmonic oversees the import of all-terrain vehicles, blessed before their departure for the front.

The ritual is the same each time the car leaves: the man of the Church rains holy water on the hood and then inside the passenger compartment. He has already blessed fifty vehicles. “This car can save the lives of soldiershe adds. We can quickly evacuate the wounded from this type of car, the classic ambulances will not arrive in the places where the guys are dying: you have to have a 4×4!

We act under the protection of the divine force!

The driver of the vehicle is called Bogdan: “We are all Christians, all believers. This ceremony is like an act of protection: the divine force helps us.“But he laughs a little in front of the car, green, English, with the steering wheel on the right:”The cars that arrive here come mainly from Great Britain: they are no longer found in countries close to Ukraine, those with left-hand drive have already been purchased. So now right-hand drive cars go to the front.“

With this blessed car, now head for a unit in Bakhmout, in the Donbass. On board, provisions, food, floor mats, bulletproof vests. “Everything guys, he said, need at the front.“