Romanians make armoured vehicles for Ukraine

A fleet of armoured vehicles, inspired by the death of a Ukrainian soldier, is being built by orders thanks to donations from Romania.

This bus, photographed in a suburb of Kiev on April 23rd, is one of several unique armoured vehicles that are financed by Romanians and are now ready to be sent to fighting areas east of Ukraine.

The vehicle once served as a public bus for the people of Pila, northern Poland. Now he's equipped as a mobile ambulance hospital.

The vehicle aims to serve as a medical facility that can be deployed within a few kilometers of the first line positions.

The project is run by Radu Hossu, an activist from Brasov, who had a huge increase in social media followers for reporting in his native Romanian language from front lines in Ukraine.

Hossu says a mobile armoured hospital was first predicted by a Ukrainian friend known by his military nickname Angel.

“He had this idea for a long time”, the Romanian explains.

In the Ukrainian war, many cases of death occur during the transport of heavily injured soldiers from their first line positions to hospitals, which are often far from the water. One of those cases was Hossus ' close friend Oleg Gubal, who died of wounds in November 2022 while being transported inside a vehicle that Hossu had purchased with Romanian donations.

He died on the road from the front line to the nearest hospital. So, if this [unfortunate hospital] had existed then, he would have had a chance to survive”, the Romanian says.

He was my guardian angel when we were in the hole”, says Hossu to his friend Gubal. He constantly put himself between me and the risk. I always slept too much, and he woke me up and said: Come on, Rado, you gotta go eat now. He was a really nice guy”.

After the death of the Ukrainian soldier, Hossu says he felt compelled to commemorate his friend. The armoured bus complex will bear the name of the Ukrainian fallen soldier.

I wanted to transform a tragedy into something good”, says Hossu. “Reality is this: Gubal had a little girl and a little boy. After he died from November to last Christmas, his son wrote letters to Santa Claus asking him to return his father home”.

The armoured hospital “Oleg Gubal” will be accompanied by this truck, which has an armoured compartment in the back for doctors and nurses to shower and sleep. The truck will be painted in the same military color as the bus.

Hossu says the custom car company in Kiev that is building vehicles has not billed it for anything beyond the salaries of the workers involved. The project has health problems that prevent it from fighting, so it wants to help with the project as its” contribution.

A Romanian dressed as a Ukrainian soldier who sought to identify himself with his Mark Rum (above left) is the manager of the hospital's armoured project.

Hossu says the <x0goleg Gubal” complex has cost about 130,000 euros, which were donated by Romanians, and most of the money spent went for medical equipment and military scale blindes. Hossu claims that the purchase did not add weight to the vehicle's vehicle than it would have carried when it was full of travelers in previous public bus life.

In the same workshop where other armoured vehicles were produced, it is currently being worked on this vehicle designed to achieve the first-line positions so that it can pull and transport wounded soldiers to the mobile hospital. The four - wheel - drive vehicle is a combination of Frankenstein of a GAZ truck, designed by the Soviets, an American Ford truck cabin, and an armoured cargo bay built on the order.

Hossu says he is surprised by Romania's numerous donations to his different projects for collecting funds for the war in Ukraine, including pensioners who promised 50 euros from the 250-euro salary they receive monthly from their government.

I talked to an old man and said, Please don't do this, you need this before”, remember Hossu. He told me: Don't take away my chance to be useful again in this world”

The fleet of armoured vehicles is scheduled to leave Kiev in early May and move towards fighting zones in eastern Ukraine.