Operation Ice Breaker

Hi, my name is Craig, and I am the head of Social Media for Global Augmentation Group and Operations for Global Augmentation in UK/Ireland.

I have just returned from 6 weeks of deployment to Ukraine, volunteering my time and skills as a Medic delivering humanitarian aid and evacuating civilians on the front lines in the Donbas region, primarily in Bakhmut.

My first two days there, the sun was shining, and the air was warm. But the weather quickly turned as winter arrived. Frost clung to everything in the morning; our breath was a fog INSIDE our accommodation, which had no heating. My hands began to crack and bleed as we ran missions, carrying luggage and paralyzed people through driving rain and across muddy tracks. I had suitable winter clothing to keep me warm, I'm Irish, so I'm not afraid of adverse weather, but each day got colder. The nights got harder. The terrain was near impossible for our rescue vehicles to traverse, regularly getting stuck in places bombarded by artillery.

I'm asking, humbly, for your help.

Our evacuees leave with nothing but what they can stuff into one bag; they are elderly or often very young, many are infirm and unable to move, and almost all of them are starving and have been enduring the bombs for months.

Operation Ice breaker has two simple aims.

1. To source warm winter clothing to be sent to our Volunteers on the ground and distributed amongst those we evacuate so they can endure the winter, or distributed amongst those who wish to remain with no hope of electricity or heat.

2. To modify a 4x4 vehicle to run evacuation missions in the villages whose dirt roads have turned into unmanageable mud tracks. To ensure that our volunteers can continue to, safely and efficiently, evacuate those under direct fire from the war as well as bring in desperately needed aid packages to those remaining.

We are rebuilding homes, providing medical support, evacuations and humanitarian aid right on the front. We have witnessed death on an industrial scale since we arrived in Ukraine in April 2022. We have evacuated over 1000 souls, 100's of animals and saved countless lives.

We depend on your support to keep making a difference. Please, help us save lives.

Together, We will find a way.