Christmas in Ukraine: Retired military couple helps remove bombs in war-torn country
During a Dec. 8 video call, retired military veteran John Culp spoke from Ukraine, lit by candlelight and a nearby snowy window. The power and internet was down in his building, so he used his phone's hotspot to call on his laptop.
Halfway through the 45-minute interview, the laptop's battery died and Culp had to switch to his phone, which then lost wireless connection three separate times.
"For quite some time now, Russia has been striking the infrastructure of Ukraine with, for the most part, long range missiles either launched from ships out in the Black Sea or from bombers that, most of the time, they don't cross into Ukraine, they sit over Russia and launch cruise missiles from basically safety," Culp, who has been volunteering in the war ravaged country since April, told the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the Paste BN Network.
"They have basically vowed to take down the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine so that the Ukrainians will freeze in the dark this winter."
Instead of making it home to Waynesville, North Carolina, in time for Christmas this year, John and his wife, Donna Culp, both retired military officers, will be volunteering their time to help defuse undetonated bombs in war-torn Ukraine.
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John Culp, a 69 year-old retired U.S. Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel, has been in the Eastern European country for eight months with the nonprofit Bomb Techs Without Borders, which is dedicated to preventing deaths by helping to remove landmines, IEDs and other explosive remnants of war. Since leaving the U.S. on April 5, he has returned only once in late August before heading back to Ukraine to continue work with the nonprofit.
Donna Culp, 68, is a retired Air Force captain, president of the WNC Chapter of the Military Officer's Association of America and who visited Ukraine with her husband for a few weeks in July, plans to go back this month to help with other nongovernmental organizations that she has been assisting remotely since her last visit.
"I didn't really expect to go to Ukraine, but I did. ... I saw what the Russians were doing, and what I saw in Bucha, in Irpin, in Hostomel, you multiply that by thousands, and it's ongoing," Donna Culp told the Citizen Times. "Complete cities are being destroyed, you know: infrastructure, manufacturing, farming, homes, schools. It's ruthless, and it doesn't make any sense, but this has to stop."
When she was in Ukraine in July, Culp saw atrocities up-close, including a vehicle in Bucha, where a Ukrainian family was killed by invading Russian forces. Because of the Russian occupation, she said it took three months before the bodies could be recovered from the vehicle.
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Bringing U.S. expertise to Ukraine
John Culp's army career began as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, and he spent much of his time working with and training others on the disposal of explosives, according to past reporting. He was Bomb Techs Without Borders' first person on the ground in Ukraine, and had an important role to play in the organization's success in the county, Bomb Techs Without Borders CEO and Founder Matthew Howard said.
"John's primary mission, in addition to doing the hands-on work and building that relationship, was to grow our network and start connecting with other departments and agencies," Howard said. "Now, we've got a network of partnerships across Ukraine that give us a lot of people that we can and do work with."
Donna Culp has begun to help Bomb Techs Without Borders, too, Howard said. She is spearheading the group's logistics efforts in Ukraine, he said, as the group looks to bring in specialty equipment for disposal and training.
"As we grow and expand our impact in Ukraine, we are going to be bringing in a lot more specialized equipment and procuring a lot of specialized equipment in Ukraine. We need logistics established so that we can control all these items, make sure they end up in the right place and combine them with our training programs," Howard said.
Bomb Techs Without Borders is not the only group Donna Culp is working with, however. She said that she is also working with Moldova World Children's Fund, based out of Hendersonville, and Blue/Yellow for Ukraine, which has provided Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers with non-lethal supplies since 2014, according to its website.
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"Working with other NGOs is not so much of what I'm doing for them as much as how we are collaborating together identifying where there are needs, troubleshooting, problem solving, and figuring out how to get the best results possible," she said in a follow-up email.
Because of her medical background, Donna Culp said she is also working with a group of other organizations in the country who are addressing medical needs. The hospitals are "overwhelmed, understaffed, and under supplied" she said in the email, and the organizations do what they can to support them.
Even after the war ends, Bomb Techs Without Border's mission in Ukraine will not be over, Howard said. The organization is working with a group out of the University of Maryland that has studied satellite data of craters where Russian artillery struck in Ukraine, and he said that study has shown that a large number of explosives have come into the country.
"I can't remember how many square kilometers, but it's far from all of the territory that's been fought over, and they had identified well over a million craters," Howard said. "If we assume, as we do in explosive ordnance disposal, we assume roughly a 10% dud rate, that means just from artillery bombardments that created those craters, you've got over a 100,000 UXO, the unexploded ordnance left over."
That number does not include landmines, booby traps or ammunition from vehicles, ammo supply depots or firing positions that have been destroyed, he said. Removing these explosives costs money and lives, he said, as the organization has seen up close and personal with the organizations and agencies it works with in Ukraine.
"The thing that drives John, me and the other volunteers from Bomb Techs Without Borders is we want to support other bomb techs and de-miners and keep them alive and give them the training and the equipment and the knowledge that they need to survive and become the best bomb technicians and de-miners in the world," Howard said.
Christian Smith is the general assignment reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the Paste BN Network. Questions or comments? Contact him at RCSmith@gannett.com or 828-274-2222.