'Let's not forget them': Portsmouth man volunteers under fire in Ukraine

PORTSMOUTH — Portsmouth resident Robert Addie has done relief and recovery work in war zones around the world but never experienced anything like the past few weeks in Kyiv and Kherson in Ukraine.

He can't get an image out of his mind of a fish swimming through a man's bombed out and flooded home in Kherson or the constant threat of artillery shelling that often forced him and his fellow volunteers to scramble for shelter.

Addie, a U.S. Army infantry veteran and builder who owns Seacoast Home Transformations, joined a friend and frequent volunteer in the war-torn country through the organization Light for Ukraine. Citing his childhood love of reading Ernest Hemingway and Louis L’Amour, Addie has traveled to 85 countries, with volunteer experience in Israel, the Golden Triangle region of Thailand, Brazil and Syria, among other countries.

His time in Ukraine, however, was a totally different beast.

“It’s the first time I’ve been doing humanitarian aid work while under artillery fire,” he said.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, ordered by Vladimir Putin, began Feb. 24, 2022. There's no end in sight and it has forced millions to flee to safety, with the United Nations stating more than 6.3 million refugees had been recorded around the world as of June 19. Another 5 million-plus Ukrainians have been displaced within the country.

Thousands of soldiers on both sides have died in the conflict, and the United Nations reported that as of June 18, there have been over 9,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine, with another 15,700-plus injured.

Addie’s time volunteering in Ukraine lasted three weeks. It came during the Wagner Group's short-lived armed rebellion testing Putin's power in Russia. He returned home to Portsmouth in late June.

'Let's not forget them'

Addie met in Portsmouth's Prescott Park to discuss his time in Ukraine. He brought the medical kit, equipped with tourniquets and bandages, that he used during his humanitarian efforts. Wearing a bucket hat with the Ukrainian colors stitched onto it, Addie also carried two uniform patches given to him by a Ukrainian emergency responder, a symbolic gesture to acknowledge his work.

“The Ukrainians love Americans. They love our support, so let’s not forget them,” he said. “Tragedies seem to have a shelf life, with incredible attention early on, but it hasn’t ended. It won’t anytime soon.”

Addie and friend Peter Sewell, who have both volunteered in Yazidi refugee camps in northern Iraq, were part of a small group assisting aid workers and Ukrainians in and around Kyiv, the country’s capital, and Kherson. The latter city has been heavily damaged, as has a large portion of southern Ukraine, by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in early June.

After flying into Krakow, Poland, then traveling by train into Ukraine, Addie and a handful of volunteers spent time in numerous communities devastated by the war.

Each village and town, he said, has a military checkpoint, and while hotels continue to operate, staff immediately show guests where to find the building’s air raid shelter. The sirens are constant, he said, and heavy explosions are frequent and seismic.

One night, staying in an evangelical church’s air raid shelter doubling as a home in Vasylkiv, the nearby blasts were rattling.

“I was staying in a home and it shook me out of bed and woke me up,” Addie said. “I ran into the other room with my headlamp on because power is intermittent. We received a text from one of our contacts over there … that said: ‘Be prepared to go to the shelter.’”

Addie and the small group of volunteers additionally traveled to a northern village roughly 30 miles from the Russian border. There, 140-plus homes have been destroyed by Russian forces, he said, also estimating four in five residents of the community have returned and are living in portable shelters provided by the Polish government.

Phosphorus munitions, he continued, were deployed by the Russians to eradicate the village, which he likened to the size of New Castle, the tiny island town neighboring Portsmouth.

Kherson experienced a 'Katrina-style event'

The majority of Addie's work was in Kherson, responding to flooding and providing fire crews and other emergency workers with supplies, food and energy drinks.

“That’s where we felt the greatest need was,” Addie said of Kherson.

The Ukrainian city, he added, has sustained a “(Hurricane) Katrina-style event” as a result of the dam flooding. For him and others, the only safe place to walk were in tracks left in the dirt by vehicles, as the burst dam washed landmines across the area, creating additional safety concerns.

A man in Kherson showed Addie the damage shelling did to his home, which had several feet of water inside as a result of the dam break.

When they were done, despite all the damage, the man locked the doors of his house.

“I said, ‘Well, he hasn’t given up. This is still his house,’” Addie said. “The people are incredibly resilient.”

Dropping off supplies and equipment and supplies to the first responders in Kherson, including pumps, shovels, buckets, tons of cleaning supplies, gloves and bleach, Addie and his group stayed to assist with pumping out local homes.

The collapse of the reservoir, according to the United Nations, has left tens of thousands of people in southern Ukraine without access to piped water.

Addie remembered one Ukrainian woman in tears over her rose garden and tomato plants being destroyed.

“The lower part of Kherson at the river’s edge is like something out of a post-apocalyptic Hollywood movie,” he said. “It’s just wrecked and has mud and muck and stench. But then there’s the people that still want to live there.”

With an early curfew in Kherson, Addie and other volunteers spent one night eating dinner outside at a cafe about 30 miles away from Kherson, peacefully sharing a meal with less worry, they thought, of Russian attacks.

“Life goes on. Even at war, life is continuing to move forward. Life doesn’t stop because of war,” he added. “People operate around it in a more dangerous environment. Businesses have to conduct business and people have to earn a living.”

Addie intends to return to Ukraine to volunteer and donate both money and goods, including air conditioners, female hygiene products and emergency equipment, to grassroots responders.

Addie to share stories of Ukraine volunteer efforts

On Thursday, July 6, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Addie will give a free public presentation about his experience in Ukraine at the Elks Lodge 500 Jones Ave. in Portsmouth, of which he is a member. He will advocate for donations to be allocated toward aid organizations and emergency responders in Ukraine.

The volunteer repeated his hope Americans remember the strife that Ukrainians are facing each day.

“This is truly a very brutal, close-contact war,” he said.

John Cavanaugh, Music Hall partnering to fundraise for Ukraine

Addie is not the only Portsmouth resident to have a firsthand account of the war in Ukraine.

John Cavanaugh, who escaped into Poland just over a week after Russia’s invasion last year, is also leading efforts to assist Ukrainians.

The Music Hall Lounge on Congress Street in Portsmouth will host an event called “Healing Ukraine's Invisible Wounds of War.” Cavanaugh is a committee member organizing the event, which will be held Wednesday, July 12 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The night will include speakers from Ukraine, who will detail the impact of the widespread humanitarian and medical aid being provided to their country, and a silent auction of items from Ukraine.

“Proceeds from the event will go to help train Ukrainian mental health professionals in the latest international best practices for treating trauma and PTSD,” according to an event description from Cavanaugh. “These Ukrainian mental health professionals will then 'train the trainers' to share the knowledge and know-how with their peers, as well as to reach a wider audience to maximize the positive impact.”

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Robert Addie of Portsmouth NH volunteers under fire in Ukraine