How British pick-up trucks being right hand drive is fuelling their demand in Ukraine

In a warehouse in Lviv, a team works tirelessly to transform aging British pick-up trucks into armoured military vehicles.

Within a matter of weeks cars donated from around the UK are ready for the front line.

The demand for British cars in particular is due in part to them being right hand drive.

Volunteers say lives of Ukrainian soldiers have been saved because Russian snipers are fooled into shooting at the passenger seat, rather than at the driver.

"Steering is on the right side and they put a mannequin or a dummy with uniform on the left so the Russians don't take out the driver he aims for the passenger side and it confuses the Russians", says Patrick McIntyre, an Irish volunteer who lives in Coventry and has given up work in order to regularly make the journey to and from Ukraine delivering donated cars.

He's lost count of the number of times he's made the trip since March last year but estimates he goes three to four times each month.

On a recent journey he took a car from Edinburgh, driving down to Dover and from there across Europe as part of a convoy of five vehicles headed to Lviv.

Some of the cars are directly donated by owners who no longer need them. Others are paid for by donations which come from the UK, USA and across the European Union.

"We go in and around the UK" he says. "We do a rigorous search for the kind of vehicles we need".

"If it's an ambulance, we source an ambulance. If it's an emergency vehicle or a fire engine or in particular the ones we're dealing with today are 4x4s that will be transferred to Ukraine to be used for humanitarian and military purposes for extraction of soldiers from the front line or for combat use depending on the requirement of the unit."

Read more:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns 'serious threat' remains at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Ukrainian football legend backs Olympic ban on Russian athletes

There are several organisations that deliver vehicles. The one Patrick volunteers for is Car for Ukraine.

He describes the process that takes place once the cars arrive in Lviv.

"Car for Ukraine take the vehicles, convert them with panels of steel in the door, armoured plating in the side panels, take the panels off the doors and put them in, put panels on the back, armoured plating and convert them from a normal civilian car to a military vehicle, or a humanitarian vehicle."

In the warehouse the conversion process is overseen by Ivan Oleksii who founded Car for Ukraine.

"Pick-up trucks are very useful in general" he says.

"British pick up's particularly - Britain in general is very positive about helping Ukraine and so it's easier to negotiate deals and get donations. Right-hand drive cars are often cheaper too because there's no market for them in the rest of Europe.

"The fact that the driver is on the other side - we do hear stories where a sniper has shot at the passenger side.

"These vehicles are saving lives, not just because the driver is on the other side, but the pick-up trucks can carry heavy machine guns on the back and they can shoot up to 2 miles.

"But they have many uses. When the Kakhovka dam was blown up we saw how one of our pick-up trucks was evacuating people because it could access areas that other vehicles couldn't get into."

He estimates that so far they're converted around 200 British vehicles. He says around 30% have already been destroyed by shelling or other damage so says they always need more.

For Patrick, quitting his job to volunteer has come a huge personal cost but he's committed to continuing as long as there is demand for the vehicles.

"Since March last year I haven't taken a salary. Fortunately my wife works and I have some savings" he says.

"I feel passionate that it's the right cause because I hope that if anything ever happened in the UK or happened in any other country I hope that people would be here to help."