Cars that London Mayor Sadiq Khan vowed to donate to Ukraine are rotting in a field in Surrey, after an event to send them to Kyiv was cancelled.
The images taken on a farm near Dorking, show a slew of vehicles given by Transport for London to the charity British-Ukrainian Aid (BUA). However, despite the conflict continuing to rage in eastern Europe, they will remain in the UK for now.
BUA previously said on social media that the first tranche of cars were due to leave for Ukraine on April 11.
But, last week BUA axed an event marking its first convoy leaving for Ukraine, due to the London mayoral election.
TfL couldn’t participate in the event, as campaigning rules mean publicly funded organisations can’t take part in things that could be seen as unduly promoting one election candidate over another.
According to the Telegraph, TfL has only passed 44 cars and vans to BUA.
According to reports, Ukrainian forces desperately need vehicles in which to transport the wounded to hospitals and pop-up medical tents.
It’s been noted that volunteers have become frustrated by the Mayor-backed scheme, claiming its low output risks undermining UK support for Ukraine.
Volunteers BUA of over-promising and under-delivering. Tom Wozniak, who is a volunteer with Liberty Trucks Ukraine, a charity which has so far sent 380 trucks to the embattled country, has expressed his frustration with BUA.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Wozniak sent an email to BUA, urging the charity to accept experienced help.
The email said: “If the scheme were to have any chance of success, you would step aside, involve someone else, or do what you originally promised – which is to leverage all the experience offered to help you”.
City lawyer Mr Wozniak added: “The difference between sending 300 trucks or 3,000 trucks is measured in hundreds and hundreds of Ukrainian lives.
“We know from everything that’s in our telephones, because every time we deliver a truck, we always get a report.”
Under Mr Khan’s ULEZ scheme, cars that were not compliant with the emissions rules could be scrapped, with £2000 compensation. Meanwhile, the car’s owner could tick a box saying they wanted the car to go to Ukraine.
However, TfL has said only a small number of scrapped vehicles were eligible for transfer to Ukraine.
Richard Lofthouse, who works with Car for Ukraine, a group that provides 4x4s and trucks to the battlefield, said the initial hit of goodwill towards Mr Khan for his innovative use of non-ULEZ compliant vehicles was at risk of being undermined.
According to The Telegraph, he said: “We had a big meeting at the Ukrainian embassy where we were all hoping to all work together in a happy, fluffy-bunny kind of way, helping Ukraine, and it’s not turned out that way at all.
“Sadiq was in such a rush. There was a political payout for getting it done in time for the second anniversary of the invasion.”
Express.co.uk has approached TfL and Mayor of London for comment.
