{"id":916696,"date":"2026-04-25T02:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/916696\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T02:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:44:20","slug":"dc-woman-joins-uk-convoy-delivering-donated-vehicles-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/916696\/","title":{"rendered":"DC woman joins UK convoy delivering donated vehicles to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Karen Lee, a 64-year-old Southeast D.C. resident, found herself behind the wheel for a journey she\u2019d never imagined \u2014 as part of a convoy driving donated vehicles across Europe to support the Ukrainian war effort.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lviv-war-dead-941x1254.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              A freshly dug part of an older historic military cemetery in Lviv to include women and men killed over past 4 years.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Karen Lee)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Karen Lee                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Convoy-54-at-the-border-941x1254.jpg\" alt=\"a group of people at the Ukraine border\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              Convoy 54 at the border of Ukraine.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Karen Lee)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Karen Lee                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Crossing-Poland-Ukraine-border-941x1254.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              The convoy crosses the border from Poland into Ukraine.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Karen Lee)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Karen Lee                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karen-and-Matt-nearing-border-1672x1254.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              Karen and her friend Matt Kuhnert nearing the border into Ukraine. The inscriptions inside the vehicle are messages of support from Driving Ukraine to the donated car\u2019s recipients.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Karen Lee)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Karen Lee                            <\/p>\n<p>                                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karen-Lee-Ukrainian-army-couple-and-her-friend-1672x1254.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                              Karen Lee and the Ukrainian army couple that picked up her vehicle.<br \/>\n(Courtesy Karen Lee)                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                Courtesy Karen Lee                            <\/p>\n<p>Karen Lee, a 64-year-old Southeast D.C. resident, found herself behind the wheel for a journey she\u2019d never imagined \u2014 as part of a convoy driving donated vehicles across Europe to support the Ukrainian war effort.<\/p>\n<p>Lee and a friend raised enough money to buy a used vehicle, then flew to England in February to join the convoy organized by <a href=\"https:\/\/drivingukraine.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Driving Ukraine,<\/a> a nonprofit founded by a British man who was 17 when the war began.<\/p>\n<p>On Feb. 14, Lee joined others in delivering 18 vehicles to Lviv, an 1,800-mile journey across Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am Slavic, a second-generation American, and I wanted so much to be able to do more than just give money,\u201d Lee told WTOP.<\/p>\n<p>At times, she said, it was a nerve-wracking experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we were dropping the vehicles off in Lviv, which is on the western side of Ukraine, we had multiple air attacks, and I saw the military quickly erecting these turrets, which I later understood were gun turrets, because they have to try to knock the incoming drones that are going to, about to kill them, out of the air,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>At the military warehouse where the convoy left the vehicles, she found people working in harsh conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere basically almost was no electricity, there was no heat, there was a fire burning in a big barrel,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>Driving Ukraine coordinated the logistics, and Lee said the only part she had to handle alone was walking back across the border from Ukraine into Poland. It wasn\u2019t the walk she was concerned about, but getting through the checkpoint; she said it went as planned.<\/p>\n<p>According to Driving Ukraine, the nonprofit has organized 56 convoys since the war began, with the 57th convoy scheduled to leave the United Kingdom for Lviv on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The person who received Lee\u2019s vehicle was a drone pilot who uses the drones both for defense and to deliver food and water to soldiers on the front lines.<\/p>\n<p>Lee said the experience was \u201cprobably the most important thing that I have ever done\u201d and said she will be doing it again. She also encouraged others to join the effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a 64, almost 65-year-old woman who never did anything like this before in my life, and you can do it,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up <a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/newsletter-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-page__signature bottom\">\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen Lee, a 64-year-old Southeast D.C. resident, found herself behind the wheel for a journey she\u2019d never imagined&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[257130,257131,2000,299,770,257132,657,15,75606],"class_list":["post-916696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-donating-cars","tag-driving-ukraine","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-poland","tag-tracy-johnke","tag-ukraine","tag-united-kingdom","tag-war-effort"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116463053769634235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}