HLF8 guest Harry from Spakenburg, who announced last week at Johnny de Mol’s talk show table that he was going to fight against the Russians, has already returned from Ukraine. “It was a mess.”
Harry from Spakenburg was determined last Monday at the talk show table of Johnny de Mol: he left his wife and child behind in the Netherlands to travel to Ukraine. He saw it as his calling to help that country in the fight against the Russians. His wife sat angrily behind him in the audience; they all disagreed.
Wrong turn
Two days after the broadcast, that is, last Wednesday, Harry left. However, he was not allowed into Ukraine: “Because I had no contacts.” Then he made up that he was a journalist. “So then I did cross the border. I in one line to Lviv and from Lviv straight to Kiev, only I never arrived there. New…”
Why did Harry not arrive in Kiev? The navigation did not work well. “I was driving on my satnav and they closed a lot of roads and blockages everywhere. I probably took a wrong turn with navigation and I was in front of a broken bridge.”
shooting chicken
That broken bridge looked spectacular, Harry said. “I thought: great, you don’t see that every day, I’ll take a photo and a video. And I turn around, I want to go back, and I see some kind of base. I wanted to drive back and all at once there were soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers. I thought: well, it must be, because I saw that all the way.”
Harry therefore kept his Dutch passport ready. “Well, I didn’t get the chance to do that. I was dragged out of the car onto the ground. I also had shit in the car. I had a crossbow for hunting. I think: if I have nothing to eat, then I can shoot a chicken, because there are enough there. I had an army outfit and army chests with me.”
Bag over head
The Ukrainian soldiers thought Harry was Russian. “They said I had Russian army boots. They said: ‘You are a Russian spy!’ I say: ‘No, I come from Holland, I come from Holland! I’m here to help!’ But yeah, to no avail. I went boom on the asphalt, hands behind my back, taped, bag over my head, all taped.”
They eventually let him go, but after his entire phone was vetted. “They also wiped my entire phone.”
mess
Didn’t Harry overestimate himself a bit? He can also help with the border area. “No, it was such a mess there. There were only criminals on the side with leather jackets and weird recruiters. They looked like dealers in Amsterdam asking if you wanted to buy coke. Then they say, ‘Army? Join army?’”
Ah, he thinks those types at the border area are seedy, but mixing himself with the bloodthirsty Russians in Ukraine does seem like a good idea to him. Cuckoo! “Fortunately, I was pulled by humanitarian groups to say, ‘Listen, please come with us. Just listen to us and if you’ve listened to us, make your choice.’ Yeah, vague shit, yeah.”
Johnny sneezes
Johnny de Mol: “Yes, but if you listen to this story carefully… We should all do what we can. I don’t think your options lie here.”
Harry from Spakenburg: “Well, I tried. If everyone doesn’t do anything!”
Fragment
A fragment: