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Hero trucker who's made FIVE Ukraine mercy missions doesn't fear Putin's nuclear threat

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Hero British trucker who has made FIVE mercy missions to Ukraine vows to keep delivering aid despite fears Putin may blow up a nuclear power station.

Brave Stuart Davison, 54, who has brought 60 tonnes of vital supplies to the war-torn nation, said the threat of a Chernobyl-style disaster "doesn’t worry me at all"."

The grandad-of-two made his first dash across Europe in April last year and has gone on to drive over 10,000 miles back and forth between Britain and Ukraine.

He’s even been forced to run for cover during Russian shelling of the capital Kyiv, and recently received praise for his work from ex-prime minister Boris Johnson.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last week that Russia had put "explosives" on the Zaporizhzhia power plant, in the South East of the country, which could cause a nuclear meltdown if detonated."

But Stuart, who has already made new plans to return to Ukraine in October, said the threat of a massive radioactive catastrophe had not changed his desire to help.

He said: "It doesn’t worry me at all. It may sound strange, but when we are in Ukraine, we are just completely focused on everything that is happening. "

"I was really angry at the start of the war. Putin said he was just sending the soldiers in to do an exercise. He promised he wouldn’t invade, and then he did."

"The stories we’ve heard along the way have been absolutely awful, they're just unbelievable. There’s no need for it, and the Russians are just cowardly."

"But the Ukrainians are so resilient. All the people we’ve met are absolutely fantastic. And all the Ukranian soldiers I’ve met have hugged me and thanked me."

Stuart, from Selby, North Yorks., said he'd made his first aid trip across Europe just a couple of months after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022.

He'd seen a plea on social media from volunteers in the UK who needed someone to take a batch of baby supplies to Poland before they were brought to Ukraine.

And while he was initially hesitant in taking up the huge challenge, once he set off on the 1200-mile journey, he never looked back.

Stuart said: "I thought 'I will give it a go', and I agreed to do it for her. I then tried everything to get out of it - I was going into the unknown. "

"I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive over a thousand miles, but eventually I did it, and when I went I absolutely loved it. It was absolutely fantastic."

Stuart went on to found the organisation Emergency Ukraine - making regular trips with a four-to-five-person team and delivering everything from medicine to vehicles.

He even received a special video message from Boris Johnson just over a month ago, who told him: "Thanks for what you’re doing, keep going, Slava Ukraini!"

But despite receiving a warm reception from people across Europe, he admitted to feeling "petrified" after coming under fire from Russian bombs."

Stuart said: "In January, we took three NHS ambulances over to Ukraine full of aid after picking them up in London."

"We dropped the aid off in Lviv and then got more supplies and took them to a hospital in Kyiv. We had medical supplies, like ketamine, on board."

"But five minutes after we got there an air raid siren went off, and we had just three minutes to find shelter. I wasn’t scared... I was petrified. "

"We opened the ambulance and everyone just ran towards a bomb shelter. Thankfully the missiles were intercepted."

Stuart said he had brought a covert thermal imaging drone to Ukraine on his third trip for use in the military, which he had kept highly confidential.

He added: "I didn’t even tell my teammates about it. I had to keep that a secret."

Recently, he took a lorry load of supplies over to the country with bare-knuckle boxer and Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty, which was filmed for a documentary.

And he said the scenes they’d witnessed together had brought the 64-year-old TV tough guy, who also starred in Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men, to tears.

Stuart said: "When he got to an orphanage, he completely changed. He cried when he saw the kids with big smiles across their faces. He’s got a really big heart."

"I talked to a 14-year-old girl - it was absolutely heartbreaking. She had been raped by three Russian soldiers when she was 13, and she had got pregnant."

"She had the baby with her. I was horrified about what another human being could do to a 13-year-old girl. I was in shock."

Stuart has already planned his next aid mission to Ukraine, where he'll deliver a refrigeration lorry used to bring fallen soldiers' bodies back from the front line.

He added: "We will go again in October. That will be an emotional one."

Visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stuart-davison-18?utm_term=rA58MAyZd to donate to Stuart's latest fundraiser.

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