Councillor survives drone attack in Ukraine

Councillor John Lawson (right) spent two days in Ukraine helping to deliver aid

A West Yorkshire councillor has described the "unnerving and unsettling" experience of surviving a missile attack while on a humanitarian aid mission to Ukraine.

John Lawson was caught up in a Russian drone attack when he travelled to Lviv as part of a convoy to deliver emergency supplies last month.

Five people lost their lives including four members of one family, but Mr Lawson and his brother, who was there with him, survived.

The leader of Kirklees' Liberal Democrat group said: "It is hard to be terrified when you are sat in a room full of very strong people."

"They are not afraid and living their lives is the way they fight the war," he said.

"Just the act of getting up in the morning and going to work is an act of defiance."

Rescuers work at the site of a house that was destroyed in Lapaivka, near Lviv

Maksym Kozytskyi, Lviv's regional head, said the incident was the largest attack on the region since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He said around 163 drones and missiles were identified in the area.

Mr Lawson and seven other volunteers delivered items such as fire hoses, generators, medical supplies, walking frames and crutches.

They also provided bedding and clothes, hand-knitted teddy bears, tools, two ambulances, two 4x4s, a pickup truck and a quadbike.

Mr Lawson also delivered copies of Michael Drapan's book to Lviv

Mr Lawson said: "It was clear that the kit that we took was received well.

"It's not just the aid that we took, it is the people, it is the solidarity and that the rest of the world has not forgotten."

A s part of the two-day mission to Lviv, organised by the charities British-Ukranian Aid and Caritas, the group attended a literary festival to deliver a book by author Michael Drapan, who is a senior member of the Huddersfield Ukrainian Club.

Entitled Home from Home, the book is a 70-year history of the Huddersfield-Ukrainian community

Copies of the book were to be put in local libraries and handed to supporters and activists engaged with civilian work, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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