A TIMBER merchants with depots in Alresford and Southampton has dispatched a convoy of lorries to provide aid to Ukraine.

Covers has donated three crane lorries to the humanitarian organisation Stay Safe UA, which are now en route to help Ukrainian civilians near the front line.

The lorries, with volunteer drivers Chris Hurst, Malcolm Sargeant, Jamie Lewis and Lina Lazar from the Healing Hands Network charity at the wheel, are heading for the Poland/Ukraine border from Covers office in Chichester, where they will be handed over to Stay Safe UA. Their eventual destinations are Bakhmut and Kherson, a journey of about 1,800 miles.

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The lorries are loaded with a forklift, a tracked recovery vehicle, a Bobcat loader and angle broom for rubble clearance and a container of equipment including fridges, freezers, clothing and medical supplies that have either been donated or paid for with donations.

One lorry will carry a mobile shower unit, another one will become a mobile bakery and the third will be used for transport tasks wherever the need is greatest.

Covers, which has 15 depots across Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, has been working with the charity UKtoUkraine, founded by Caragh Booth, James Boughey and Pip Holmes. Covers donated generators to be used in Ukraine last winter.

There to wave off the convoy from Covers' HQ were Covers chairman Rupert Green, Pip Holmes and Henrietta Nettlefold from UKtoUkraine and Sue Stretton and Steve Grayson from the charity Healing Hands Network, which works with UKtoUkraine.

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Covers chairman Rupert Green said: “UKtoUkraine, Healing Hands Network and Stay Safe UA do fantastic work getting aid to the Ukrainian people. We hoped our lorries and forklift might be of some use but didn’t imagine how many problems it would solve for Stay Safe UA.

“This was all put together in less than three months thanks to the amazing work from the Covers team, especially our transport manager Adam Conrad, and UKtoUkraine, Healing Hands Network and Stay Safe.

“We are delighted, as an engaged family business, to work with such dedicated people for the benefit of the brave people of the Ukraine.”