An NHS volunteer is in war-torn Ukraine trying to deliver an ambulance to a bombed hospital.

Brian Grove, 60, from Vincent Road, Sittingbourne, posted a video on Christmas Day of him on the outskirts of Lviv.

After posting the brief one-minute film on Youtube, he began a marathon journey to the city of Odessa on the south coast.

But in a desperate email to Kent Online this morning he revealed the hospital had been damaged and the maternity ward destroyed by Russian bombs.

In addition, the suspension on his car has broken.

He is currently in recently-liberated Mykolaiv where the ambulance is being kitted out before being driven to the stricken hospital in Kherson.

In his email, Mr Grove, from Murston, said: "You probably know a missile destroyed the hospital's maternity ward yesterday. The hospital is also damaged."

He added: "While the ambulance is being prepared, I am supposed to be taking generators and 3G amplifiers to villages around Mykolaiv and Kherson.

"But the car had its suspension damaged on a run to villages two days ago. They are trying to source me another car."

In the Christmas Day video, the bewhiskered volunteer began with a joke.

He said: "It's Christmas morning on the outskirts of Lviv in Ukraine and there's been terrible news – Santa's sleigh got impounded by Polish border guards. So they sent me instead... with this ambulance."

He went on: "We are going to be heading to Odessa which is a long way away.

"After we have delivered some generating equipment to the city, we'll then be moving on to one of the cities which have been occupied by the Russians until not too long ago, that's Mykolaiv.

"Then, hopefully, if we can get through the destroyed roads and destroyed bridges, the ambulance is going to the hospital at Kherson where it is much needed."

The ambulance has been donated from York. The generators are paid for by public donations as part of Mission Santa Claus by Generators For Ukraine. They create hubs where villagers without power can charge phones, batteries and get light.

Mr Grove, a former Swale representative with the Kent Community Health NHS Trust, has been on six mercy missions to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia almost a year ago.

On his first trip he said at the time: “The sound of children crying with the cold will live with me for a long time.”

He has previously had a run-in with a Russian supporter back in his home town but said: "To be honest, when you have seen the horrors going on in Ukraine and had to dodge bandits with automatic weapons, one man waving his fist isn’t that bad.”

Mr Grove, a law graduate now retired on medical grounds, is a dedicated volunteer who has helped serve meals at Faversham’s Cottage Hospital and attended Covid-19 vaccination centres across Kent. He also worked as an animal rescuer in Argentina from 2003 to 2012.