Sacramento volunteer’s sense of mission sends him to Ukraine a third time amid one year of war
He’ll fly Friday from San Francisco to Paris to Warsaw, followed by the long drive across Poland. The 20-hour journey will take Art Ballard once again to the Ukraine border, ready to return to the war-ravaged country and the volunteer relief effort he first undertook nearly a year ago.
“Whether it’s a calling or it’s a curse, I cannot continue to receive private messages from friends who are there, and watch the increasing carnage from my warm home and comfortable couch,” Ballard posted to Facebook last week.
Ballard, a Sacramento resident, isn’t part of a humanitarian group nor is he attached to a military unit. He has no family in Ukraine.
But twice since Russia waged its brutal war of aggression, the former radio executive has traveled to Ukraine delivering food, feed, clothing and equipment of all sort to cities and towns across the country, the first in the early months of Russia’s invasion; the second, last September.
Ballard has collected thousands of dollars in donations to pay for the supplies he’ll deliver during this latest trip. He pays his own way for flights, food, gas and travel: “Medical supplies to dog food. The needs are endless. The aid doesn’t move fast enough,” he said. In the depths of the Ukraine winter, “The huge need is generators. Imagine living with no lights, no heat.” His itinerary takes him first to the border city of Lviv, to Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.
Ballard thought — hoped — that September would be his final trip; that the fighting would soon come to an end.
But the fighting hasn’t ceased and as a bloodied Ukraine marks a year of a withering war not of its making, Ballard is leaving for a third month-long stay. He says he has no choice.
“I told myself in September that it was my last trip. Or that maybe I’d go back and celebrate the end of the war sometime in the Spring,” Ballard wrote. “Unfortunately, there’s too much uncertainty and for now the granite cold of winter is taking hold. These people might not make it. Their animals might not make it.”
Ballard spoke with The Sacramento Bee in late January. As he prepared for his February return to Ukraine, a Russian cruise missile attack in the city of Dnipro obliterated an apartment building killing at least 44 people. The savagery was but the latest attack on unarmed civilians who have increasingly become targets of Vladimir Putin’s war.
“It’s pretty horrific, the things that are happening. It’s hard to watch. I’m afraid that Putin will try to escalate even more,” Ballard said. Now (Russia) is bombing every city. Now, they’ve bombed an apartment building in Dnipro,” he said. Ballard said he and other volunteers are aware of the risks in reentering a war zone.
“I have to be more cautious. I have protective gear, a flak jacket and a helmet,” he said. “I’m going to have to be more cognizant of where I’m staying. Where is it? Don’t get too deep into front line activity.”
On that first trip last year, Ballard didn’t know anyone in Poland, but managed to find a recreational vehicle. He recruited his cabbie to stay on as a driver and translator. He had no contacts but found a refugee center and people who knew what was needed: Diapers, paper towels, groceries. That first mission began a weeks-long journey through Ukraine.
Ballard would later team in September with Brian Nolen, a volunteer from New Hampshire and Ben Dusing of Kentucky, delivering food and supplies to places now familiar to the West: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dinipro, filling the gap, he said, of conventional aid workers and relief organizations. Nolen is now on his fourth trip to Ukraine and is a frequent collaborator with the Sacramentan Ballard. Nolen left for Ukraine Jan. 30.
On one of the September trips, Ballard and Nolen delivered food, propane, a stove and supplies from Kharkiv to Ukraine troops who had just beaten back Russian forces in nearby Balakliya the day before but had run out of food.
“They were very gracious. They were so happy to have the support there,” Ballard told The Bee after returning from his second trip last fall. “We’re not there to be war tourists. We’re there on a mission.”
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