Meet Anthony Phillips, a 34 year old from South London. Once an orphan who got into trouble in his youth, Anthony turned his life around and ran his own business.
But after the Ukraine conflict erupted, he felt compelled to help. As the only foreigner in a medical and evacuation team in Kharkiv, Anthony has witnessed the devastating impact of missile and rocket attacks firsthand.
In an exclusive interview with CGTN Europe's Iolo ap Dafydd, Anthony shares his powerful story about the harsh realities of frontlines.
#Ukraine #Kharkiv #UkraineWar
But after the Ukraine conflict erupted, he felt compelled to help. As the only foreigner in a medical and evacuation team in Kharkiv, Anthony has witnessed the devastating impact of missile and rocket attacks firsthand.
In an exclusive interview with CGTN Europe's Iolo ap Dafydd, Anthony shares his powerful story about the harsh realities of frontlines.
#Ukraine #Kharkiv #UkraineWar
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So my name's Anthony Phillips. I'm 34. I'm a first responder of Harkiv.
00:06So we are an evacuation team and our basic role of first responders is to report to any shellings
00:15in the city, but we also do evacuations outside of the city in villages that have been compromised
00:22by the Russians, been taken over. So we go to the evacuation places and bring them out to safety.
00:30So we've got two stretchers. We've got a spinal board and we've got a transport board. We've got
00:36a defib. We've got IFAKs, bulletproof vests, helmets, CLS bags, plenty of medical equipment.
00:46As you can see, the vehicle's pretty packed out. Personally, I would say in Harkiv, it is getting
00:51to the point now that the civilians are the targets and the rocket attacks now are more
00:58prioritising on civilians and the houses and supermarkets. So I personally say yes,
01:04the strikes are getting worse. The region, this is the problem. Lipsy at the moment is the target
01:10and that's north of us. So as soon as they take Lipsy, then we are in trouble.
01:15But the target is north and they're working their way down basically.
01:20In an average week, this is the problem. You can't sum it up because you could have one week,
01:27you could have everyday rockets, one week you could have none. And that's a tactic of the
01:33Russians because we relax, we start calming down. We're thinking no more rockets are going to go on
01:38for a while. People start going outside the houses, start going to the beach, supermarkets,
01:43and then they start terror attacking again. They're trying to attack the civilians to scare
01:47them to leave because they think if they leave, if all the civilians leave, it's a simple walk
01:53through Kharkiv and we'll take Kharkiv. But the civilians are fearless, they're not scared.
02:00You'll notice when the sirens are on, no one goes to shelter. We just walk around like it's a normal
02:05day. It sounds crazy, we're not worried about that. We actually switch off. As medics, we switch
02:11off from the fear of rockets and everything like that. Our focus is our casualties at the end of
02:15the day, keeping people safe. Yes, we are putting ourselves at danger, but that's part of being a
02:20first responder. So since the age of six, I was put in a foster care system. I was bounced home
02:27to home up to the age of 16. At the age of 16, I was put on the streets. I'm going to be honest,
02:34I got into a very bad lifestyle. I got into a lot of gangs and bad life choices.
02:40Not my choice, it was just because of the scenario of not having parents and a good background of
02:46upbringing, basically. I've always liked to help people in the world. I've always wanted to help,
02:53but whenever you're helping England, you're looked upon. You shouldn't be helping.
02:58I had a neighbour that died a couple of doors down for me and it mentally traumatised me.
03:03People said, it's your fault, you shouldn't get involved. That's not the right behaviour to have.
03:09It's not the right attitude. We should help each other. Everyone should be helping everyone.
03:14So when the war started, I was watching all the news, hearing a lot of the news.
03:19I had a lot of English friends that were ex-military that started coming over here.
03:24I was running my own business at the time. I suddenly started, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep.
03:30I felt very depressed in my life because of what was going on. I said to myself,
03:35I could go over there and do something. I said to myself, if I go over there and help one person
03:40and die, I'd die a happier man. At least I've done something in the world to change the situation.
03:47Maybe give a child a new life or a mother a new life. I want to stay forever. This is home for me.
03:56I have nothing else in life for me. I struggle. I'm autistic, actually. I'm going to be honest,
04:03I'm autistic. Being autistic in England is like a sickness. You're looked upon,
04:09you're looked down on, you're a weirdo. But here, you're not. Everyone loves me. I've never felt
04:15such compassion and care and love for me before. When you feel like a bad day because you've lost
04:22a patient, you can go to the next man to you and cry your eyes out to him and he won't laugh at
04:27you. He won't take the mick out of you. He'll sympathise with you. I've never had that before.