Ukraine army gets help from classic car restorers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33739510

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The war in eastern Ukraine has prompted a group of classic car restorers to put their hobby aside and help the army instead.

They are now busy fixing military kit - some of which is vintage, like the cars they usually repair.

The enthusiasts work at the privately-run Phaeton museum in the city of Zaporizhya. It is just a few hours' drive from the front line, where Ukrainian troops are battling Russian-backed separatists.

The museum lies in the city's sprawling industrial district, next to enormous chemical factories and steel mills that belch fire at night.

But once you've made it past the hulking warehouses and trucks clattering down dusty roads, you realise that it was well worth the trek.

But now, with hostilities in eastern Ukraine in their second year, all car restoration projects at Phaeton have been put on hold. Instead, the museum's restorers are focusing on a completely different kind of kit - armoured personnel carriers and army trucks.

Ukraine's impoverished army desperately needs such hardware. After decades of underfunding, it is struggling to fight the separatists, who appear to have access to a plentiful supply of hi-tech weaponry from Russia.

As a result, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry has to use vehicles which would be more at home in a museum than on a battlefield.

Semen Musher, who helps run the museum, is outraged that previous governments neglected the army's needs. "We spent more than 20 years since independence thinking we won't have to fight. Unfortunately, we do now. So much time has been lost," he says.

Staff at the Phaeton see it as their patriotic duty to help the military in this time of war. "I'm too old to join the army," says Vyacheslav Zaytsev, 57. "I'm more use here, helping to fix military hardware," he says.

Only part of the work is funded by the military, which also helps the Phaeton with components. That help falls far short of covering all the repair costs, and a significant contribution is made by the museum itself and other volunteers.

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