Tenby Powell

My fifth tour of duty in Ukraine ended yesterday and I’ve shared some thoughts below and in the attached video. As always, I returned to Mykhailivska Square in Kyiv to stand with Aroha - one of our vehicles that has taken the full weight of the war - and to reflect on what we have seen and done. This tour has left a profound mark. The devastation is immense. Russian forces continue to drive people, many of them elderly, out of their homes and cities simply by destroying the places in they once lived. Even Kyiv itself is under continuous attack by ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, which arrive night and day. The cruelty is deliberate and unrelenting. Yet our work continues. Thanks to the New Zealanders and our international supporters who refuse to look away, Kiwi K.A.R.E and our Ukrainian partners has been able to maintain a high operational tempo - which I’ll mention in a future post. We will stand beside the Ukrainian people until the end of this illegal, full-scale, war, and beyond. As I make my way home New Zealand, I do so with the clear knowledge that the need remains and so too does our commitment. Please click on this link and help keep the wheels of humanitarian support rolling: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

This is the third ballistic missile attack on Kyiv tonight. Each wave followed by jet-powered drones. These are not strikes on military targets. They are deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure: university campuses, residential buildings, medical facilities (including an intensive care unit with windows blown out), metro areas, parks and ordinary homes - there is not a single military facility nearby. That is the definition of war crimes under international humanitarian law: indiscriminate or deliberate targeting of civilians for maximum death and destruction. Reports from the first attack (about five hours ago) say one killed, around 10 injured (including university students and paramedics), people possibly trapped under rubble, extensive damage across districts. Rescue crews are still working. This is calculated terror, timed and repeated, not battlefield necessity. Russia answers any talk of negotiations or restraint with ballistic missiles and drones aimed at cities. The criminality is clear. The consequences are blood, rubble and a capital under constant assault. Accountability is well overdue. Air defence deliveries cannot keep being delayed while civilians die. #StandWithUkraine #KyivUnderAttack #KiwiKARE

And then there were 75 . . . Kiwi K.A.R.E. has just delivered its 75th ambulance (81 vehicles in total) into service in Ukraine. The latest six are not new vehicles. They are decommissioned (end of economic life) ambulances on a new mission - to save lives in the red zones. We are deeply grateful to @StJohnNZ for their continued support and trust in Kiwi K.A.R.E to provide a professional service in reaching the most vulnerable Ukrainians. The latest convoy covered 2,200 km from Ostend, Belgium, to Kyiv without incident. My sincere thanks to my Polish friends who dedicated their time and driving skill to get them through safely. Thank you also to Ambassador Paul Ballantine for meeting us in @NZinWarsaw - your support and encouragement means a great deal. After four and a half years, our work continues because thousands of New Zealanders refuse to look away. Your support is what keeps these vehicles moving and our operational tempo high. If you can, help us keep the ambulances on the road by clicking on this link to donate: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

Four and a half years later . . . the drones still hunt civilians, families still freeze, ambulances still get hit. Kiwi K.A.R.E and our Ukrainian partner teams remain steadfast in our humanitarian service and particularly in reaching those most vulnerable in frontline areas. I sat down with Kyiv Post Chief Editor, Bohdan Nahaylo, to talk about why. People should not have to live like this. Please listen. Then pass it on. #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿 youtu.be/bBsLCrW4eYM?si=2JXg…

I attended the inaugural Carpathian 8 leaders and business Summit in #Bukovel, representing the New Zealand Ukraine Business Association (NZUBA). On the table are about ninety projects seeking roughly $10.7 billion U.S dollars, heavily weighted to energy, logistics, infrastructure and agritech. The @KyivPost asked me to report on the Summit as attached. Please let me know your thoughts. #KiwiKARE #NZUBA #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿 share.google/UQbvmnL0GmssZW4…

I’m grateful to Dr Michael Johnston and The New Zealand Initiative for taking an interest in our humanitarian work in Ukraine. The interview was recorded on 11 August and, even in the past five weeks, so much has changed. Back then Kiwi K.A.R.E and our Ukrainian partner ambulances had been hit five times. Now it’s 11 times with five destroyed or written off. Click to listen and please let me know your thoughts: nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-… As always - we remain committed to reaching those Ukrainians most in need and can’t do this without your help. Please click on this link to donate: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine #NewZealand 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿 nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-…,

Russia isn’t capturing Kramatorsk. It’s hunting it. FPV drones fly into courtyards and purposefully kill civilians. Glide bombs hit apartment blocks. Marked humanitarian vehicles - including our ‘Road-of-Life’ teams - are being destroyed on purpose. This is not the ‘fog of war’ - it’s a method of warfare. It’s time to document and name it. It’s State Sponsored Terrorism. Click on this link to read my OpEd in the Kyiv Post: kyivpost.com/opinion/84334

The Horror of Izyum . . . Four Years on In September 2022, after Izyum, a city on the Donets River in the Kharkiv Region of eastern Ukraine, was liberated, a pine forest on the edge of the city gave up its horrifying secret: hundreds of graves marked only with numbers on wooden crosses. No names. A total of 447 people were lifted from that ground. Civilians. Children. Soldiers. Some had ropes around their necks, hands bound, bodies broken after torture. Occupation left them numbered and unnamed. Attached is my original post from September 2022 when I was there with the original Kiwi K.A.R.E team. The photos do not in any way do justice to harrowing scenes; I found it very difficult to capture given the scale. It is important this atrocity is not allowed to fade in any way. The dead of Izyum deserve to be remembered by their names and not just a number. And the war crimes committed there must ultimately be prosecuted. #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

What an honour to have been named a finalist in the Trust Management NZ Not for Profit Leadership Award at the New Zealand Leadership Awards. This recognition belongs to the Kiwi K.A.R.E team and our supporters. To every volunteer, donor, partner and supporter of Kiwi K.A.R.E in New Zealand and across the world - thank you. Warm congratulations to category winner Josh Hickford, and to fellow finalists Andrew Young ahd James McCulloch. It was a privilege to be listed alongside such outstanding leaders. Thank you Robert Walters for the invitation and for hosting an evening that celebrates purpose-driven leadership. Thank you Trust Management NZ for supporting these awards, and thank you to the judges for a rigorous and time generous process. Energised by the recognition and more determined than ever to keep serving. #NZLeadershipAwards #NotForProfit #KiwiKARE #ImpactLeadership #StandWithUkraine

Just back from the frontline city of Kramatorsk. The war we saw this week is not the one in which we started working. Drones now hunt ambulances. Humanitarian workers are targets. I’m now openly asking a question most agencies still won’t: should we be able to defend ourselves against the drones attacking us — or at least have the debate? Listen to my interview with @radionz : rnz.co.nz/podcast/the-detail…

Evacs from Sloviansk continue . . . The return journey from Sloviansk to the Kramatorsk refugee centre is a well worn and dangerous track for the Road-of-Life teams. This family, with a high-needs adult, will be transported west into a safer environment. This work is never ending amidst constant drone and glide-bomb attacks. And with winter around the corner, there is a sense of urgency to reach as many as people possible. Please help us keep the ambulances rolling by clicking on this link: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

Kramatorsk → Sloviansk → Evac Run In one of two armored ambulances which the Road-of-Life team must now use. Overnight: constant incoming glide bombs and Shahed drones. Now: driving under the drone nets. Soon we won’t be. Concertina razor wire everywhere to stop infantry infiltration. Then open roads without nets mean high vulnerability from FPV drone strikes. One evac at a time . There’ll be more today. The Road-of-Life teams getting the job done. Please click on the link and help us keep the ambulances rolling: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

Kramatorsk: Conducting Evacuations from a Frontline City The two-storey house behind me in the video was hit by a Shahed drone moments before we arrived in Kramatorsk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region. On 21 August, the entire Kramatorsk area was officially reclassified as a “Territory of Active Hostilities. It is now designated a grey zone - and classified under frontline conditions. 42,000 people still live here. Another 36,000 people live in nearby Sloviansk. The roads are becoming undrivable and humanitarian support is dwindling. Glide bombs and drones don’t care about classifications - however we care about people. We can still get people out. We have the plans, the partners, and the experience. New Zealand can make a real humanitarian impact here - if our government chooses to support us. Please watch this video. Share it widely and send it to your MP asking for support. This is the moment for New Zealand to act decisively and to make a significant humanitarian impact on the ground in Ukraine. Please click on this link to donate: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

Blue September Is Here! Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in New Zealand men. One in eight of us will face it in our lifetime and many still leave the check until it’s too late . . . like I did! This year’s message is simple: Challenge Yourself. Following a prostatectomy in late 2020 and two rounds of radiotherapy later, founding Kiwi K.A.R.E in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was one of the hardest challenges I’d undertaken. Building a humanitarian organisation capable of operating effectively in frontline cities and towns required a team of extraordinary people. They came from all walks of life and many nationalities - and they stepped up without hesitation. The war has demanded grit, resilience, and the willingness to keep going when it is uncomfortable, dangerous, and exhausting. Kiwi K.A.R.E teams have done exactly that each and every day. That same mindset belongs to our health. Getting a PSA test is not heroic. It’s not dramatic. It’s just a blood test. But for too many Kiwi men it still feels like a step too far - until it isn’t. This Blue September I’m challenging every man, and the strong partner standing with them, to do two things: 1. Book a check-up with your GP, and 2. Talk to your mates about it - and get them to do the same Do it for your family, your mates, and the work still left to do. The people who show up for others, whether in a war zone or at home, need to stay healthy enough to keep showing up. This September - Kiwi K.A.R.E team members will do 25 push ups each day for the month to acknowledge the 749 Kiwi men who die each year from prostate cancer. I’ll post a combined vid once a week until Sept 30th showing our teams in New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. Challenge yourself. Get checked. #BlueSeptember #ProstateCancer #GetChecked #KiwiKARE 💙💙

Yesterday we distributed stoves and water boilers in and around the Kharkiv Oblast to villages ahead of winter. Everyone expects this winter to be another hard one with more attacks on power and water infrastructure anticipated. We can deliver one of these units for only $250, which includes collection of an old hot water cylinder, stripping, cutting and fabrication work, and distribution to family. Thanks New Zealand for your great support to get the job the done. Please click on the link to donate: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿

The drone-dominated battlefield is rewriting the rules of both warfare and humanitarian response.  In this interview with the Ukrainian Information Agency (Ukrinform), I attempt to present a clear picture of humanitarian work in modern conflict.  It is becoming more dangerous, more localised, more adaptive, and more tightly integrated with the realities of drone warfare.  Organisations that fail to adjust to this risk will become less effective or more vulnerable. Lastly I argue the need for self-protection and tactical adaptation has arrived. Purely “neutral” approaches are becoming harder to sustain. Humanitarian teams increasingly require better coordination with local forces, improved situational awareness, and, in some cases, self-defence capabilities that still remain within the bounds of International Humanitarian Law and are permissible under Geneva Conventions (Article 22) and Additional Protocols (Article 13 and 65).  My thanks to Ukrinform for the invitation.  youtu.be/1csmAFBlF-Y

Happy Independence Day not only to Ukriane, but to all who have supported her during her darkest of days. Many will know the movie ‘Ground Hog Day’. While it can be very much Ground Hog Day here in the routine of ceaseless support, it is through that routine that we deliver the real Humanitarian Impact. Routine and the dedicated discipline that comes with it. So today . . . was a day off. I went to the gym, walked Kyiv’s inner city, and had dinner with our key partners. It was all very civilised. It’s now well after midnight and I won’t be at all surprised if the civilised part ends in the next hour or so. It is highly likely that ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and jet powered drones arrive en masse. Time will tell. As my good friend Oleg said tonight, “maybe it will be peaceful tonight, and tomorrow will be another hell”. Maybe. Who knows. Thanks New Zealand for enabling us to get up on Ground Hog Day and do it all again. Sadly, we need more of your help before Punxsutawney Phil steps out of his burrow, refuses to look at his shadow, and declares in a cheerful melody, that peace has arrived. Until then - we will hit that alarm clock at 0600 and do it all again . . . “Okay campers, rise and shine and don’t forget your booties because it’s coooold out there today”! Please click on the link and help us get through another Ground Hog Day: givealittle.co.nz/cause/kiwi… #KiwiKARE #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦🤝🇳🇿