Karen Lee, a 64-year-old Southeast D.C. resident, found herself behind the wheel for a journey she’d never imagined — as part of a convoy driving donated vehicles across Europe to support the Ukrainian war effort.
Lee and a friend raised enough money to buy a used vehicle, then flew to England in February to join the convoy organized by Driving Ukraine, a nonprofit founded by a British man who was 17 when the war began.
On Feb. 14, Lee joined others in delivering 18 vehicles to Lviv, an 1,800-mile journey across Europe.
“I am Slavic, a second-generation American, and I wanted so much to be able to do more than just give money,” Lee told WTOP.
At times, she said, it was a nerve-wracking experience.
“When we were dropping the vehicles off in Lviv, which is on the western side of Ukraine, we had multiple air attacks, and I saw the military quickly erecting these turrets, which I later understood were gun turrets, because they have to try to knock the incoming drones that are going to, about to kill them, out of the air,” Lee said.
At the military warehouse where the convoy left the vehicles, she found people working in harsh conditions.
“There basically almost was no electricity, there was no heat, there was a fire burning in a big barrel,” Lee said.
Driving Ukraine coordinated the logistics, and Lee said the only part she had to handle alone was walking back across the border from Ukraine into Poland. It wasn’t the walk she was concerned about, but getting through the checkpoint; she said it went as planned.
According to Driving Ukraine, the nonprofit has organized 56 convoys since the war began, with the 57th convoy scheduled to leave the United Kingdom for Lviv on Saturday.
The person who received Lee’s vehicle was a drone pilot who uses the drones both for defense and to deliver food and water to soldiers on the front lines.
Lee said the experience was “probably the most important thing that I have ever done” and said she will be doing it again. She also encouraged others to join the effort.
“I’m a 64, almost 65-year-old woman who never did anything like this before in my life, and you can do it,” Lee said.