First Impressions Of War-Torn Ukraine (PART 1)

wow this is such a good soup so I'm headed out to Ukraine tonight I usually visit Ukraine a few times a year and I go every year for Rosh Hashanah there's a acidic pilgrimage to the Grave for a very new man Ukraine but for the past few months Ukraine has been not really accessible because of the war but now things are starting to hopefully get better so tonight I'm headed back to Ukraine to see what's going on over there how it has changed since I last saw it about seven months ago I'm also hoping to meet members of the Jewish community and some Jewish soldiers and many other things so welcome along with me for the journey I hope it's a safe one thing [Music] so it's about an hour and a half into the flight and I'm sitting here at my computer writing an article for the magazine um trying to spend my time wisely and we have a long night ahead of us we land in Poland we have a 10 or 11 hour drive from Krakow until Kiev where we're trying to reach tomorrow so it's going to be a long long night I hope I get some work done and I hope I'm able to sleep a little bit too thank you hello okay so just got off the plane and crack our Poland and I think we get into a taxi now for 11 hours so we're outside Krakow Airport it's a nice cool evening there are a couple people who did fly with me two of them are going to be joining me throughout the entire trip and another two of them just happened to be on the flight with us they are going to be getting a ride with us to Ukraine and then we're going to be parting ways so maybe I'll introduce you to all these people a little bit later so this is the vehicle we're going to be traveling in it's a large large van so thank God there's gonna be a lot of space because we're gonna be going all night it's like midnight now we're going to like I don't know 9 10 11 in the morning so we're just heading out this is the fan that we're in uh oh the door just closed on me okay so we're about an hour into the drive maybe even less and the driver told us that he's too tired to continue so now he's sleeping in the front of the car and we're just stopped um this has never happened to me in all my years of traveling Eastern Europe there's something about the men in this part of the world they are so strong they have so much energy these people like honestly I've taken drivers on week-long road trips and we had one driver who like he would go a day and a half without sleeping no problem and uh I've never seen this happen I guess I guess I don't know maybe it's the stress of the war or maybe he's already been working for a day and a half no idea but he's out cold and we're just standing here at two in the morning on the side of the highway waiting to see what happens next foreign [Music] so it's a quarter to five in the morning I probably got about an hour of sleep total in this van I must say the roads are not bad but we're still in Poland as soon as we get into Ukraine the roads are gonna be much worse and much bumpier anyhow so we are only a few minutes away from the Ukrainian border I'm gonna cross in hopefully we're going to be safe A little bit nervous but um the areas that we're planning on going to generally have been safe in the past few weeks so we hope it's going to stay that way the reason we stopped at this gas station here in Poland is because in Ukraine there is a gas shortage because of the war and we want to make sure that we can continue driving so we're getting the gas here on this side of the border before we cross [Music] oh so we've arrived at the border I probably won't be able to film much over here so we'll see you on the other side [Music] discovered okay we just crossed into Ukraine so far it's peaceful [Music] okay so just wanted to give you guys a little update we got into Ukraine about three hours ago I've pretty much been sleeping the whole time since we got in which was a good sign because that means that there's no action so I don't mean to get political here but this part of the country there's no fighting going on just like every other time I've visited why it's people are coming and going shopping there are long lines for fuel we are seeing that other than that everything is normal in other parts of the country there is fighting there is chaos and maybe we'll see a little bit of that as well okay so it's about 12 30 P.M I've been sleeping on and off more or less I've been sleeping the whole time here in my seat because I'm really tired well now I'm a little bit arrested but I was really tired um I'm not trying to downplay the war and how serious it is all I'm saying is that in this area that we've been so far there's been absolutely no sign of the war and it's relaxed beautiful just like the old days it reminds me of the many other trips that we've made to Ukraine and um later we're going to be in other areas that have been hit by the war I'm not sure it's going to be a very different experience right now it's calm it's beautiful the weather's great hopefully the entire country will become a beautiful very soon [Music] thank you [Music] okay we have arrived in the beautiful little town of mesbiz Ukraine mesh bush is very well known in the Jewish and in the Hasidic world because this is the place where the holy Bal shemtov the founder of the Hasidic movement lived for many years was born in 1698 and passed away in 1760 and he's buried right there behind me in that building it's an ancient Cemetery I'm going to take you over for a second we're gonna go in there soon but I just want to show you around a little bit I was here almost 11 years ago for the first time and many of the things you're seeing right now we're not here this hotel was not here that hotel behind me is not was not here this Cafe was not here slowly slowly they've built it up and they've added many new facilities and it's made it easier for people to come here in the past five years every single week there were hundreds of people possibly thousands coming to visit depending on the week now it's very quiet because of the war most people are not visiting Ukraine but there are still small trickles of guests who are coming and the cafe is functioning you wouldn't think there's a war going on not far from here let's go into the cafe there's also a little gift shop over here check it out foreign [Music] so all of the gravestones here are hundreds of years old many of them have been restored to the best ability that people are able to do you see these are cracked so it's possible that no one knows who they are but at least some of the lettering on the graves or whatever is left over has been filled in with black so it could be red a lot of money was invested in this here I'm gonna enter now [Music] thank God I just married at the prey inside of the grave of the balcony and many other great rabbis I want to introduce you to someone you already know Mr Hillel koyan from matala Ukraine I we met him the night after Rosh hashanahanuman yeah in his clinic and now he's here still in Ukraine during the war saving lives how's it going Hashem we are the ambulance was everywhere the ambulance was in in butcher in Italia and in Shabbos to get out two patients cancer patients and I want to say thank you for sadak organizations Association a give for Ukraine um approximately more after the ambulances so for 100 days hello has been going in and out of Ukraine taking six people old people cancer patients whoever needs to escape with this ambulance he how many times did you go in and out of Ukraine a lot I can I can show you my passport one of the Miracles is my my passport is is look oh my goodness every day he goes in and goes out it's full and you know every day I uh I'm going back and out for three months he has more than 100 stamps in the last three months from going in and out of Ukraine with this ambulance helping people you know in a lot of times the middle of a war people just think about themselves and they run away hello took his family out and then he came back and made sure that everybody who needed help was getting help you're at Sadiq thank you yeah they purchased more than 30 ambulances during the war this is only one of them all communities and they've been using them to save people all day all night 24 7. 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