Van full of donations for Ukrainian refugees stolen in UK, charity says

• A van full of items intended for Ukrainian war victims has been stolen, a UK charity says.
• The charity said two men stole the van full of furniture from its warehouse on Sunday.

A van full of donated items intended for Ukrainian war refugees was stolen in the UK, a charity said this week.

International Aid Trust, a Christian charity in the UK, said on Facebook on Monday that a white Mercedes van was stolen from its headquarters in Chorley, Lancashire, on Sunday.

The charity told the BBC that the van, which it said cost over $26,500 (20,000 pounds), was filled with furniture meant for Ukrainian refugees.

One of the charity's employees, Ryan Bernard Cocker, told the BBC that CCTV footage showed two men drive up to the warehouse in a smaller white van on Sunday and take the vehicle.

"Within three minutes our vehicle had gone," Cocker told the BBC. "But we're not going to be defeated."

Cocker told the BBC that dozens of volunteers had been working at the Lancashire warehouse to prepare donations for Ukrainians displaced by Russia's invasion into the Eastern European country.

"Yesterday we loaded our sixth lorry and that's on the way now to Ukraine," he told the BBC. "And then you get two individuals that steal one of our vehicles, that's what really hurts."