This report from Ukraine is by Neale Bayly, a motojournalist and photographer with more than 20 years under his belt. He also founded the nonprofit Wellspring International Outreach in 2011 with a mission to ?bring aid and attention to the abandoned and at-risk children throughout the world.? Bayly recently returned from a three-week, 6,600-km (approx. 4,100 miles) motorcycle trip across Europe and into war-torn Ukraine, which he described as a ?beautiful country with incredible people standing resiliently against a brutal regime intent on their destruction.? 

The idea for the ride came about a few days into the war back in February when my friend, Kiran Ridley, called me from Ukraine. Covering the war from Lviv in Western Ukraine, he was using a cheap Chinese motorcycle to navigate the 30-km lines of refugees fleeing Ukraine at the Polish border. The access he was getting to people and their stories with the motorcycle was a game changer, but the bike was running badly, and he was improperly dressed for the winter weather and alone in this incredibly high stress environment.  
Kiran Ridley photo by Neale Bayly

As the phone line went dead after that first phone call, my mind went into overdrive. Images of the destruction and devastation the Russians were inflicting on the civilian population was keeping me awake at night, and after a couple more calls, a plan was set. 

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