{"id":18661,"date":"2022-03-29T00:03:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T04:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=18661"},"modified":"2022-03-29T00:03:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T04:03:39","slug":"ukraine-welder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=18661","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian welders armor-plate donated vehicles to fight Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

LVIV, Ukraine \u2014 A strawberry-scented air freshener dangled from the Ukrainian military<\/a>\u2019s latest vehicle to head to war.<\/p>\n

In a welding shop in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv<\/a>, workers were adding steel plates to a donated pickup truck<\/a> so a volunteer could drive it to the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur victory depends on us,\u201d said Ostap Datsenko, a welder who is part of a huge volunteer effort playing a role in Ukraine’s resistance, with support from the diaspora.<\/p>\n

But he hadn’t expected to see so much of the war, or its shrapnel, so soon.<\/p>\n

He had been standing on the truck<\/a> hurrying to finish the job before sunset Saturday when he heard a noise, looked up and saw an object whizzing through the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty large, but I\u2019ve never seen rockets before,\u201d he said. \u201cThen I heard a huge explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian airstrike hit a factory connected to the military, and the blast sent Datsenko tumbling. Dazed, he hurried into the garage\u2019s makeshift bunker in the grease pit.<\/p>\n

The following day, he was back at work for the finishing touches on the truck before it\u2019s driven on Monday to eastern Ukraine, along with three other vehicles.<\/p>\n

The truck’s camouflage paint job was complete. The welders put bars in the back to help support a machine gun.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Datsenko, his clothes streaked with oil, said he was ready like all Ukrainian men to be called up to fight. But he had no combat experience, meaning his time is yet to come.<\/p>\n

Until then, he said, \u201cI\u2019m doing what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\n Ostap Datsenko in his welding workshop in Lviv, western Ukraine. (AP)<\/em>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n \u00a0\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ukraine\u2019s military appears to have fought Russia\u2019s much larger army into a stalemate on some fronts, which has surprised many observers. One of Ukraine’s weapons is a parallel army of volunteers who are busy mobilizing funding and supplies ranging from body armor to cigarettes. Others make the military connections.<\/p>\n

In Lviv, which had been relatively far from the war until the airstrikes on Saturday, the welding shop looked for ways to help. It started off making \u201chedgehogs,\u201d or the metal barriers placed at checkpoints and around some sensitive facilities. Then they heard the call for cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny vehicles are very much in demand on the front line\u201d by commanders, said Artem Pastushyna, a 27-year-old welder with metal nuts glinting in his earlobes.<\/p>\n

Only a small number of the vehicles have been adapted with steel plates and camouflage, he said. The need is too big, and there’s little time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany cars from Europe are driven directly to the front line,\u201d Pastushnya said.<\/p>\n

The truck was the first vehicle that the welding shop has adapted, he said, and he hopes they\u2019ll do many more.<\/p>\n

Until then, the welding shop is paying new attention to its grease pit after Saturday\u2019s airstrikes. They had expected an attack sometime but not one so big, Datsenko said.<\/p>\n

In the pit-turned-bunker, accessed by a wooden ladder, an empty pizza box indicated that the workers had spent more time there than usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil yesterday, it was only a basement,\u201d Datsenko said. \u201cNow we realize it would be wise to have more stuff there.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the war<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LVIV, Ukraine \u2014 A strawberry-scented air freshener dangled from the Ukrainian military\u2019s latest vehicle to head to war. In a welding shop in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, workers were adding steel plates to a donated pickup truck so a volunteer could drive it to the front. \u201cOur victory depends on us,\u201d said Ostap Datsenko, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}