‘They just want the day that the war is over and they want their lands back’

ARETIRED Ashbourne Garda who is on an EU mission to re-establish law enforcement in reclaimed territories in war-torn Ukraine says the experience has been “life changing.”

Chris Elliott is part of EU Advisory Mission (EUAM), an initiative that supports law enforcement agencies in liberated areas.

EUAM Ukraine is a non-executive civilian mission that was created in 2014 in response to the Maidan Revolution.

Based in Kiev, the Ashbourne man's role as a organised crime advisor involves travelling around the country to assess the needs of policing systems in what is known as Post Occupation Capacity Building.

“I was in An Garda Siochana for 31 years, I previously worked a mission in Kosovo. I did fifteen months there as an organised crime investigator and I really came to enjoy mission life,” he said.

“I was always interested in Ukraine even before the war and in January, the Department of Foreign Affairs opened up a position and I applied for it and I got the job.”

Chris says trying to re-establish law enforcement from scratch is a challenge but rewarding role.

“It’s civilian security sector reform to give the Ukrainian people a criminal justice system of EU standards that they can trust,” he said.

“I’m part of a unit that travels around the country where you meet your counterparts and assess the needs of the prosecutor and police office. They have nothing left here so they need IT equipment like printers and computers for basic police work.”

Izium, a city in the eastern part of the country that was ravaged by the war was Chris and his team’s first port of call after arriving in Ukraine, an experience he says he will never forget.

“It was liberated in September last year and that is one of the places we concentrated on first,” he said. “Seventy per cent of buildings there are damaged, it was under shelling for a long time.

“As you arrive into the city there is an apartment block with a huge hole in the middle of it, something like 44 people died there. There is also mass grave with 440 people and when you see that it really brings home the reality of war. You see it on the news but when you are actually there it is surreal.

“I had no experience of going into areas that had been occupied by another army so it was new for us but you are learning from these people all of the time,” he added.

“Trying to establish the police and rule of law is difficult but we are giving them every assistance we can.”

Experiencing life after attack in Kharkiv was also a sobering moment for the former garda.

“Kharkiv wasn’t occupied but was in a territory close to the front line and to see the buildings there gutted by shells and missiles with not a window left in anything within 800 metres is very surreal.

“It shows you how powerful the blast radius of a missile is. On the other side of things there is a beautiful park in the middle of the city where the flowers are perfect, everything is just idyllic, and around it you have buildings that have been blown apart.”

Chris says the Ukrainian people are keen to rebuild their lives and their country.

“The people here are very resilient,” he said. “I see women out cutting the hedges, trimming the grass doing normal things to get their city looking as nice as it once was but then you have a building in the background that is half demolished by shelling. People want to get back to normal and the service that the police provide is very important to them,” he added.

“They just want the day that the war is over and they want their lands back.”

Integrating into a new country is just one of things that Chris has learned in his time in Ukraine so far as he explains: “Kosovo was an executive mission which meant that we had investigative powers this is purely advisory so that was a big change for me. They also have so many different police forces here, I’m still struggling with the structure. It is a massive country, you have the population of Ireland living in this city alone.”

The former detective who undertook a post grad in financial investigation and forensic computing when he retired says although he is living in a conflict zone, he has never felt unsafe.

“There is a war going on so there is always a risk but at the end of the day we have good security people here who assess everything and you trust their judgement,” he said.

“People carry on their normal lives as much as they can, they have the daily sirens but they carry on here.”

Chris, who spent over 30 years in the Gardai says he has always been keen to take on roles where he can make a difference. He added:

“I joined the Gardai in 1990, I spent most of my time in and around north Dublin, Ballymun, Dublin Airport, that was my area for most of my service. I was a detective for about 20 years and then I left and went into private security work, I then worked in one of the social media companies.”

The organised crime advisor says leaving a secure job wasn’t easy but the lure of another mission was just too much to turn down.

“When I left the Gardai I said I’d take every opportunity given to me, there is a big world out there and I did that and I’m still doing it and still enjoying it.

“The mission is not about me it’s about giving something back to the Ukrainian people. To be able to walk out of here and say I’ve done something, I’ve made a difference.”

Chris hopes to one day return as a tourist to the country that “has so much to offer.”

“Kiev is an absolutely beautiful city, from arriving here my whole image of this country changed. It is a big bustling modern metropolis. The infrastructure for tourism is like nothing I've seen anywhere else, the old churches and monasteries, bars, restaurants, the metro.

“When you travel you see fields with thousands of acres of sun flowers, I thought Ireland was rich and fertile for agriculture but this country between the wheat and sunflowers every inch of land around the houses in the countryside have crops, potatoes, watermelons, grapes, it’s unreal.”