Lee Lambert
Lee is the primary frontline resource of Aurora Frontline Aid, collaborating with volunteers from many countries, representing many different organizations.
Co-founder and Board Member
”Watching the images from Ukraine on tv images had a real effect on me. The sight of fleeing civilians, taking with them only what they could carry – which for most part consisted of a few carrier bags or a suitcase or two. This is what motivated me to want to help in any way I could, so I went to Ukraine to volunteer in March 2022. I had no real plan at the time. Well, that’s not entirely true. I knew I wanted to do evacuation of civilians, and to do this I purchased a 17-seater minibus.
What I thought I would be able to do and the reality of the situation on the ground, were two very different things. What I, and many other volunteers, intended to do had never been done before on this scale. There were no blueprint or guidelines to follow for operating as a self-funded, unarmed civilian in a war zone, with a minibus.
From there, I met a group of Ukrainians who were doing trips into the Donbas daily – 7 days a week – rescuing civilians under constant bombardment from the Russian forces who were quite often no more than 3-4km away. This was very risky, and in retrospect rather foolhardy. But I’ve never felt more useful in my entire life. When I look back now on that period, it hurts to having witnessed the events that took place, but at the same time it fills me with some sense of justice for the actions I have taken. I spent months working with this group, basing myself in Dnipro and running into the Donbas daily.
Around this time, I started working with Tilde Addenbrooke, agreeing as I did to help the organization she was working for, get their aid into the east of Ukraine, where it would make the most impact and where the need was the greatest. Tilde and I have been teammates ever since, and we eventually transitioned our work away from civilian assistance to mostly just military supply and support.
I believe strongly that the best way to help the civilian population in Ukraine, is to support the military. Without the proper support, the Ukrainian military has no chance of defeating Russia. Every little bit we do really does have an impact to the units we now support.”
