{"id":194639,"date":"2025-12-21T08:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194639\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T08:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:13:12","slug":"northland-volunteer-risks-russian-drones-to-deliver-aid-in-ukraine-war-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/194639\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland volunteer risks Russian drones to deliver aid in Ukraine war zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Topzand spent the first month in Kyiv then settled in Mykolaiv, where he works mainly in emergency response and reconstruction work, helping repair civil buildings \u2013 mainly schools \u2013 damaged from drone and missile strikes. <\/p>\n

With a small team of up to 10 international volunteers, he cleans up the debris, then patches up the buildings to make them weather-tight.<\/p>\n

\"Jack,Jack, right, with fellow volunteers from humanitarian organisation Koridor UA.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the damage is so extensive, the local government doesn\u2019t have time or money to repair everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we try to get them operational again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Topzand\u2019s volunteer work also takes him to Kherson, on the front line about 60km from Mykolaiv, to deliver first aid equipment to hospitals. <\/p>\n

Wearing body armour and helmets, Topzand and his fellow volunteers drive under huge nets suspended above the roads. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s because, in many towns and cities near the front, Russian drones<\/a> are deliberately attacking civilians, aid workers and emergency responders. <\/p>\n

The disused fishing nets \u2013 sourced from Europe including fishing ports along France\u2019s Brittany coast \u2013 form tunnels that protect people driving, walking or cycling within them. <\/p>\n

\"HugeHuge nets form tunnels that protect people driving, walking or cycling within them from Russian drones.<\/p>\n

Koridor UA sources the nets for free, then transports them where they are needed. <\/p>\n

With the threat of drone strikes and bombs a constant reality, Topzand said he has to be careful. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to these places that have been bombed, a lot of them were damaged earlier in the war and have been sitting there for years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose that have been recently bombed, you have to be more careful.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though daily life in Mykolaiv is relatively \u201cnormal\u201d, Topzand said there were constant reminders of the war that has dragged on since 2022<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Every day there are air alerts letting them know drones are coming; sometimes they last a few hours, sometimes all day. <\/p>\n

\"Jack\u2019sJack\u2019s volunteer work takes him to\u00a0Kherson, on the front line, to deliver first aid equipment to hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be careful where you go. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll come around a corner and there\u2019ll be a building with a giant hole in it.\u201d <\/p>\n

While in Kyiv a Shahed drone [unmanned combat aerial vehicle] landed a few hundred metres from where he was staying, and earlier this month, one flew over the house when he was cooking dinner, exploding in a nearby carpark. <\/p>\n

He can hear automatic gunfire \u201cgoing off the whole time\u201d. <\/p>\n

Despite this, Topzand said he doesn\u2019t feel unsafe. <\/p>\n

\"JackJack Topzand is helping repair damaged buildings for Ukrainians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in good hands; Ukraine is doing a very good job of keeping us safe. <\/p>\n

\u201cI find it extremely fulfilling; when you go to these places you see how much support is needed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Topzand is returning to New Zealand in January to help his parents with their business, Blue River Orchard, which sells fresh blueberries and icecream in Kerikeri. <\/p>\n

He said he\u2019ll be sad to leave, though \u2013 perhaps because it\u2019s zero degrees in Ukraine and he was in the middle of a blackout – he\u2019s looking forward to catching Northland\u2019s summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine has been very welcoming; the people are very good at making you feel at home. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say I\u2019m from New Zealand it evokes a strong reaction from people, they are surprised I\u2019d come such a long way to help them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes them feel they\u2019re not alone and the world hasn\u2019t forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topzand spent the first month in Kyiv then settled in Mykolaiv, where he works mainly in emergency response…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1884,83031,120697,29429,95661,25094,11286,1342,85819,78,3234,111,43,139,1067,69,6379,4517,1519,8221,12633,19063,61,3461,7571,6149,6123,49817],"class_list":["post-194639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aid","tag-appalled","tag-braving","tag-deliver","tag-delivering","tag-drone","tag-drones","tag-five","tag-humanitarian","tag-in","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-ongoing","tag-past","tag-risks","tag-russian","tag-spent","tag-strikes","tag-to","tag-ukraine","tag-volunteer","tag-war","tag-while","tag-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}