We had the honour of speaking with combat medic Peter Fouche. He has been helping the Ukrainian military for almost two years now, and a few months ago, he became a full-fledged member of the Ukrainian armed forces. His words are eyewitness accounts of the terrible atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine. His call is to give weapons to the Ukrainian army otherwise, the war will come to everyone’s homes.
Stanislav Kinka, The Ukrainian Review (S.K.)
Hello, Mr. Fouché. I represent the Ukrainian English-language newspaper and website The Ukrainian Review, and we have a couple of interviews with the fascinating people taking part in this war for Ukraine’s independence. Today, we have Peter Fouché, a volunteer and combat medic who served in one of the units on the front line in the Kharkiv and Donbas region. Could you tell us more about yourself and your background before the war?
Peter Fouché, combat medic, volunteer (P.F.)
Yes, good evening, Sir. Thank you for inviting me to talk to you today. I was born in Africa 49 years ago and came to England. I’ve worked in England and lived in London for 25 years. I naturalised as a British citizen in London. I drove taxis, and for the last four years, before I came to Ukraine, I was a construction carpenter. And also before and when I was very young, I joined the police force in South Africa. I was in the Port Elizabeth Flying Squad for three years. That gave me some kind of military experience. I was a construction carpenter in London. I’ve got a 15-year-old daughter and an ex-wife. They live in London. And that’s my background.
S.K.
What was your personal motivation to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces?
P.F.
My personal motivation to join Ukraine was to help defend Ukraine. It was very simple and very sudden and very impactful. It was one very sad moment. I was sitting in my lounge on my sofa and watching TV. My mother had just come from South Africa to visit me in London. And on TV, I was watching the news, and I saw children being raped and murdered. I saw the news about children, Ukrainian children being raped and murdered. As an ex-policeman and as a father, I have a strong desire, as any parent does, to want to protect any innocent child. And that was my motivation. My love, my direct love for my daughter, created an explosion of care. If I can put it that way, it is an explosion of desire to come and help, care, and protect the children of Ukraine. And I shouted upstairs to my mom: ‘Mom, I’m going to Ukraine’. And the rest is history.
S.K.
What is your mission in Ukraine? I read several articles. In one, you were mentioned as a volunteer, and in another, you were mentioned as a military man. What is your mission now, and how do you help the Ukrainians? Is it related to the unit with medical evacuation, or did you took part in the frontline routine and fierce?
P.F.
I’m a medic right now. I am a contracted soldier in the armed forces of Ukraine, and I’ve been a medic for the last year and a half. I joined the army five months ago, the year before that project, Konstantin, the charity I started with Tetiana Millard, who passed away five months ago. She was driving another donated vehicle from England. She was born in Bakhmut but has lived in England for the last 17 years. She was driving another vehicle to Ukraine and had a terrible accident in Pokrovsk. She passed away. My mission in Ukraine since I arrived here was as an instructor. I was teaching soldiers how to shoot and some combat tactics, and then I started Project Konstantin, which was doing humanitarian deliveries and rescues around Ukraine for civilians, and that evolved into casualty evacuations of injured soldiers in and around Bakhmut and eventually in Serebryansky Lis [Wood], and that has evolved into me now joining the army as a full-time medic.
S.K.
From your point of view, what do Ukrainian combat medics need the most now: more training, coordination programs and supplies, or evacuation equipment, such as protected medical vehicles?
P.F.
What do they need? One word — vehicles, vehicles, 100 vehicles! There is often a shortage of medical supplies, and there’s often a shortage of decent tourniquets, but these things are often met. In my experience, these needs are often met. It can be a day or two of a unit being short of decent tourniquets and, you know, a couple of phone calls, a few internet posts, a little bit of Nova Posta and a couple of, and it’s all sorted. My one-word answer to your question is three words: medical evacuation vehicles. It is the biggest and most endless need out here. The vehicles are getting destroyed. Donbas eats cars. Donetsk eats cars, sorry. The roads out here are like the craters of the moon, and the vehicles don’t last long, and they are very expensive to repair because there are long queues at all the mechanical shops. And the vehicles are probably expensive now because of all the enemy FPV drones that are out there.
S.K.
So, the most casualties are the result of the FPV drones used by the Russian forces?
P.F.
Right now, I would say so, yes. FPV drones. And mortars, artillery, yes. But in my experience, most of it is from FPV.
S.K.
And how can we decrease the level of this danger? Can you say that the Ukrainian forces need more anti-drone systems or some artillery, different calibres, or instead of these, more and more combat drones to use against the Russian side? What is your point of view?
P.F.
There are certain measures that a person can take. For example, you can have an armoured vehicle with really thick armour, making the vehicle slow and a bigger target. So, there are many drawbacks to having a heavy, bulky armoured vehicle. It also makes them extremely expensive and non-transportable. Anti-drone systems like the REB systems [Electromagnetic warfare systems — ed.], the drone jammers, they are also expensive, but they are gettable. But no sooner do we install them on our vehicles and the bloody Russians change their frequencies again, or they invent a new drone with a new frequency. So we’re always chasing their technology, or they’re chasing ours, should I say. My short answer to that question is we need more artillery. We wouldn’t be in this ridiculous FPV tennis match if it wasn’t for the fact that Ukraine is being starved of life-saving artillery and long-range rockets and aircraft.
The fact that we have to play catch-up with children’s technology, I’m talking about children’s toys. In my world, drones are a child’s toy. The fact that we’re using drones to combat the Russian Federation is absolutely laughable. They’ve got every single bit of heavy metal that exists in the world. Every piece of metal hell-bent on destroying and crushing Ukraine. And we’re expected to save Ukraine, this beautiful nation, with a little piece of plastic with four plastic propellers on it? Are you kidding me? Where is the West? Where is the artillery? Where is the help? You know, this full-scale invasion has been going on for two years. Nothing takes two years, Stanislav. Nothing takes two years. Somebody invades a NATO country? They’re going to be sorry within seven seconds of having invaded or had anything bad to say about a NATO country. There’s going to be aircraft carriers and helicopters and all sorts of… Hell coming to that person. But because it’s Ukraine, whatever their reasons are, we’re being hung out to dry. My answer is forgive my long-winded answer, but my answer is we need artillery and we need those weapons that have been promised to us for such a long time.
S.K.
And what is your opinion on why the European countries and Great Britain, not part of the European Union but a great nation and a great army, did not send aircraft two years ago? Why do they not send some missiles? But why does the United States of America not support Ukraine fully? What is the reason why? Because you have been here for two years or near, and you know it from the deep inside. And you can talk to your friends, neighbours, and all the people worldwide. And you are not alone. Dozens of people from Ukraine shout, saying that Ukraine needs more aid because if Ukraine falls, the next will be the European countries. Why are they just silent up to now?
P.F.
I think there are a couple of reasons for that. Why are they taking so long? I believe that there are a lot of lies and false propaganda being spread about Ukraine and how desperate the situation is here. And that Ukraine is strong, the army is strong, and we are full of fighting spirit. And all of these things are true. But there is only that much… There are only X amount of soldiers in Ukraine, Stanislav. We don’t have an infinite supply of military-aged males. I think the West is under some illusion that Ukraine will sort this out for itself. I think that the West is probably under some illusion that they stand at risk of being punished by Russia somehow. And the other reasons I have, I don’t know. My truthful answer is I don’t know why they are taking so long.
S.K.
Could we say that it’s more a political question than a military question?
P.F.
Yes. I have been irritated and frustrated for a long time, irritated and frustrated with the amount of politics and the amount of red tape that needs to be sorted out before a decision gets made. Before somebody wants to release weapons for Ukraine. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of medics working around Ukraine like myself. I just came back from two days on the front, Stanislav. I was so tired. My hands… I was pushing haemostatic gauze into soldiers’ wounds. My fingers were cramping up because I was so tired of doing this. It was like digging potatoes out of the ground all day long. And your fingers start cramping up. Stanislav, there are not enough medics, and there are not enough soldiers in Ukraine to wait for the West to decide that it’s going to be a good time to send weapons and now send aircraft, etc. What I’m saying is to put your policies and your bullshit on hold. Give us the weapons that are going to help us protect Ukraine. Those are going to help us protect Europe. And figure out all your paperwork later. Human life is the most expensive thing on earth. Innocent lives of innocent people, of innocent families, women and children are being brutalised every day. And everybody just goes, six more months and we’ll send the F-16. Three more months, and we’ll send some more artillery. And one country’s got artillery, but he wants another country to pay for it. It is absolutely disgusting. And you know why?
Because they’re not here. Bring them here. Come to Donbas. I will give you a tour. I will take you right there to the front. I will show you the limbs and the eyeballs and the cheekbones and the elbows of my fallen comrades lying scattered all over the battlefield. I will take you to the crushed houses. I will take you to the blown-apart apartment blocks, where you can find the remains of innocent families. Maybe then. You will go back and sit around the table with your parliamentarian friends and decide, okay, you know what? Actually, boys, let’s do something about this. There is no excuse. I don’t believe for one second that there is any policy or any political red tape worth this much life, worth this much murder and worth this much damage. Ukraine is being rolled up like a red carpet. The red carpet is the red flag of Russia. And it’s being rolled up in a concrete crush. What’s happening out here is apocalyptic. They systematically bomb everything into history. There is nothing left. They are killing and murdering and blasting apart as they travel. They don’t need to be destroyed so widespread. It’s their mythology. They are erasing Ukraine from the earth’s map. And it’s brutally evident.
S.K.
I’m really very sorry that you go through this hell. Today, we have bad news that Kharkiv was bombed by guided bombs. And the Russians adopted the old bombs at a range of 80 or 90 kilometres. And they started to bomb the civilians. It’s very bad news for Ukraine. And for the Western allies. Because Russians are not helpless. They are smart. They adapted to this war. And then continue to produce more and more weapons. Maybe my last question. Could you tell that somebody on the front line in Ukraine or from the foreign volunteers waited for this conflict to freeze because a lot of the politicians in West Europe say that this conflict must be frozen and stopped? But what is your point of view? You’re on the front line and know this much better than any politician.
P.F.
Your question is that we should possibly freeze this war where it is and let them have what they’ve got, and we keep what we’ve got. Yeah, that would pretty much say. So my answer to that is very clear: f*ck them off to anybody who’s got that kind of an idea. My answer again, without swearing, is okay, we can do that, but what about the millions of Ukrainians that are trapped out there? What about the hundreds of thousands of children that are trapped out there? What about the mothers and the brothers and the sisters of all my Ukrainian comrades in the armed forces of Ukraine who’ve got family out there in occupied Ukraine? What’s going to happen to them? What about all the priests? What about all the churches and the priests that have been tortured because they wouldn’t give up their churches to the Russian to the Russian religion? What about all the churches and religions that have been crushed? What about all the children whose names, dates of birth, and identities were erased and changed into Russian names? What about all the young girls that have been raped that you cannot tell their vaginas from their anuses anymore because they’ve been so brutalised because the Russians raped them so badly.
How can we leave our brothers and sisters out there and just freeze this war? So we freeze the war, and the war stops, but for eternity, we will know that half of us are out there living under that brutalist regime. It is absolutely not even considerable. It is not even something we can consider. It cannot even enter the mind that Russia needs to be stopped. Russia needs to be pushed back beyond its borders. It has to happen, and if it doesn’t happen, keep those weapons because you will end up using them for yourselves. I’m talking to Western governments: Ukraine is doing you guys a favour, give us the weapons we need and let us finish this war before it comes to your doorstep before. There’s no more Ukraine because the blood in Ukraine is on those politicians’ hands there is no simpler way to put it: we’re not giving up the east of Ukraine, we’re not giving up Donbas, there’s not one Ukrainian soldier in this country who would want that to happen, and I know I speak for all of them when I say that and not one civilian who’s got any brains in their head would think that either yeah.
S.K.
Thank you for your message. It’s very emotional and tragic because we know that Ukraine is waiting for Western supplies and weapons, and time is really running out. I hope your message will go through the internet, through the YouTube channel, to the ears of Western politicians or decision-makers, and they will decide to do their work as fast as possible.
P.F.
God blessed me with the hands of a medic, and he’s blessed me with a mouth and an English tongue. Most of the world speaks English these days, it would seem, so I’m only trying to help raise awareness and help bring brutally and desperately needed help for Ukraine. Thank you for hearing me, and please push this message as far and wide and loudly as you can. We’re on the same team here, and I need you, and you know me and the success we’re having out here protecting the rest of Ukraine. But we also need you to help us get the tools we need to protect the rest of Ukraine.
