Taylorville Man Volunteering in Ukraine Unhurt After Bomb Hits Nearby Neighborhood

A retired Tuscaloosa County man volunteering his time and expertise to help Ukrainians in their war with Russia feels lucky to be unhurt after a large bomb hit a residential area near him overnight.

The Thread first interviewed Taylorville man George Berry in Fall 2022, when he was raising funds for his first trip to Europe, when he volunteered in Poland helping Ukrainian refugees for six weeks.

Berry, who retired from a position with the Tuscaloosa County Engineering Department, said he returned safely home from Poland and then took a vacation for himself in Thailand earlier this year.

Feeling the call to give back again, he returned to Europe last week and is no longer in relatively safe Poland - he found himself Thursday night in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine and its most-bombed. He hopes to stay in the war-torn nation for at least three months.

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Berry called the Tuscaloosa Thread from Ukraine Friday and said his new proximity to the war made itself evident last night when a large bomb fell in the city he was staying before he got to Kharkiv.

"About 12 o'clock midnight, it sounded like a shotgun went off in our room and the whole building shook," Berry said. "One of Putin's big bombs had hit about four blocks from our apartment."

"These are older munitions with a huge amount of explosives in them, and they've attached some kind of thing to them, a guidance GPS that will take them to a target," Berry said.

Instead of booking a flight right back home, Berry said he's never felt more alive, and knows the resupply runs he's making, carrying medical supplies shipped by an Irish NGO into Romania, will make a difference when he drops them in Ukraine.

"I've thought this over myself, about why I'm here. The only explanation is that God put it on my heart. When this thing started, I kept watching and I felt a great amount of empathy for these people and what's going on," Berry said. "Putin is bombing churches, schools, children's hospitals. He has no consciences and these people are fighting tooth and nail with everything they have to keep their own country."

As conflict boils in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, Berry said the attention given to the conflict in Ukraine has plummeted.

"The news reporting on this war seems to have dwindled to 10 or 15 percent of what it was," Berry said. "But this war is still going on, people are still dying daily. Russia has almost unlimited resources and the Ukrainians are doing great against them, but we still need help and I feel they need to win this war or Putin's going to be on our doorstep one day."

Berry said he would provide updates on his time in Ukraine as he could, but asked for people to remember the people there as they continue to fight.

"These people don't deserve what is happening to them," Berry said. "So thoughts, prayers and any help you can send here - it's all greatly appreciated."

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