Adelaide firefighter Andy Dunt tackles grim task exhuming bodies at mass grave in Ukraine on three-week deployment
When Adelaide firefighter Andy Dunt volunteered to help Ukraine’s war effort, he had no idea he would end up knee-deep in a mass grave. Warning: Graphic
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When Adelaide firefighter Andy Dunt volunteered to lend a helping hand in Ukraine, nothing could prepare him for the grim task of scouring a mass grave for hundreds of men, women and children killed by Russian forces.
That was the job Mr Dunt, 42, had in the city of Izyum, formerly occupied by Russian forces until Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region.
A husband and father-of-two, more than 14,000km from home, asked to trawl through hundreds of graves to retrieve the severely decomposed bodies of innocent Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.
Men, women and children, piled on to a truck and taken away.
“On the first two days we remained in Kharkiv waiting for the truck, and then moved the bodies from the truck to a makeshift morgue so they can conduct autopsies and try to identify the victims,” Mr Dunt said.
“These bodies – and we’re hearing there’s over 1000 – they were just strewn all over the floor of the morgue. Some are in pieces and we would just have to pile them on top of each other.
“The smell, it’s just horrific, as they are not refrigerated and who knows how long the bodies have been there.”
Mr Dunt said on third day they travelled to the site in Izyum to exhume the bodies themselves.
“From what I understand they couldn’t keep up at the morgue and they sent at least 10 people to the site to do autopsies while we were there,” he said.
“I haven’t seen it, but there’s been reports of people found tied up and evidence of them being tortured. I don’t think people in Australia fully comprehend what is going on over here.”
It’s a far cry from his role in the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service, where he has specialised in urban search and rescue since 2007.
Speaking to The Advertiser from a fire station in the city of Kharkiv, air strike sirens ringing in the background and just minutes before he was set to depart for the site, Mr Dunt said it wasn’t what he imagined he’d been doing.
With holidays approaching, Mr Dunt applied for Project Joint Guardian three months ago, a not-for-profit organisation that deploys firefighters from Australia and the United States to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“I’ve specialised in urban search and rescue for over a decade and I’ve developed these skills that have never really been put to use,” he said.
“I had an aspiration to go over and help and I thought what better way than to do it applying the skills I had learned in that area.”
He was selected for the group’s third mission, arriving in Warsaw, Poland on September 9 before making the 15-hour drive to Kharkiv.
He was just 10 minutes from the city when the danger of the journey he was about to embark on hit home.
“I saw three massive explosions in front of me, flames just filled the air,” he said.
“They had destroyed a power station, cutting electricity and water supply to the city.”
The precariousness of the mission came to a head again, when Russian forces broke through the frontline just kilometres from the mass grave at Izyum.
“The got through and came around the back and there was a firefight involving heavy artillery happening just two kilometres from where we were,” he said.
“It would have went on for about an hour and we just had to hope the Ukrainian forces would push them back.”
Mr Dunt admitted it made him uneasy, but was reassured by the Ukrainian soldiers around him.
“If those soldiers around us got worried, we would get worried, but fortunately they didn’t get too concerned,” he said.
He said he could get a sense that people were living with a lot of anxiety in Ukraine.
“You start to realise how indiscriminate the air strikes are. They could hit anywhere at anytime,” he said.
“The first couple of days I noticed people wouldn’t even look when there was an explosion. They are scared, but they have become accustomed to it and they are living with it.”
While there were harrowing elements to the deployment, Mr Dunt said there was an overwhelming sense of gratitude from the Ukrainian people. He said that made the job worth while.
“We went to this beautiful little town to visit the Ukrainian fire chief’s grandmother and there were babushkas sitting around having a picnic and they were just so happy to see us,” he said.
“They made us more food than we could eat and were even getting emotional. They said they thought the west hated them because that’s what they’d be told by the Soviet Union.”
He said the real heroes were those who had been on the ground from the start.
“I think it’s really important to praise the Ukrainian emergency services, military and people,” he said.
“The chief at our station has worked 24/7 since the war began. He literally lives at the station.”
For his wife Deb, 40, and two children Haileigh, 18, and Summer, 15, it is a nervous wait for him to arrive home in Adelaide on Tuesday.
“He’s been on other deployments to bushfires in New South Wales and Cudlee Creek, but nothing quite compares to the magnitude of this. I have to admit I’m not sleeping great,” Ms Dunt said.
But despite her fear, she said she felt an overwhelming sense of pride.
“He is brave and courageous. When people need help he is the first person to put his hand up and we just have to let him do his thing,” she said.
Ms Dunt said she tried to focus on the positive change he was making.
“The extra supplies they’re providing, for example his first day in Izyum he delivered three tonnes of food,” she said.
“It’s those things that just show the impact his work is having over there.
“But we do miss him and we’re definitely counting down the days until his return.”
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