Cars promised to Ukraine by Sadiq Khan languishing in a Surrey field

Some of the vehicles that have yet to be delivered to Ukraine – Paul Grover for the Telegraph/Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Cars that Sadiq Khan promised to donate to Ukraine are languishing in a Surrey field after an event organised to send them on their way to Kyiv was cancelled.

Pictured on a farm near Dorking, the cars and vans given by Transport for London to the charity British-Ukrainian Aid (BUA) remain in the UK for now.

The charity previously claimed in social media posts that its first convoy was scheduled to leave for Ukraine on April 11.

However, last week BUA cancelled an event to mark its first convoy leaving the UK because of the London mayoral election.

Campaigning rules mean publicly funded bodies such as TfL cannot take part in events that might be seen as unfairly promoting one election candidate over another.

Just 44 donated cars and vans have been handed over by TfL to BUA, which was appointed by Sadiq Khan to run the donations scheme on the transport authority’s behalf.

Battlefield medics and humanitarian groups in Ukraine are in desperate need of vehicles to transport the wounded to hospitals and medical aid posts, it is understood.

Cars that Sadiq Khan promised to donate to Ukraine are languishing in a Surrey field – Paul Grover for the Telegraph/Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Volunteers who have become frustrated with the official Sadiq Khan-backed scheme say its sluggishness risks discrediting British support to the beleaguered Eastern European country.

Some accused BUA of having bitten off more than it can chew.

Tom Wozniak, a volunteer with Liberty Trucks Ukraine, which has so far sent 380 trucks to the Eastern European country, says he is fed up with BUA.

An email from Mr Wozniak to the charity and copied to other volunteers, seen by The Telegraph, urged BUA to accept experienced outside help with the official Ulez donation process.

“If the scheme were to have any chance of success, you would step aside, involve someone else, or do what you originally promised – which is to leverage all the experience offered to help you,” the email said.

Mr Wozniak, a City lawyer, continued: “The difference between sending 300 trucks or 3,000 trucks is measured in hundreds and hundreds of Ukrainian lives.

“We know from everything that’s in our telephones, because every time we deliver a truck, we always get a report.”

Jonathan Verney, a 62-year-old industrial metals entrepreneur who organises donations of vans to Ukraine, described what vehicle shortages mean for Ukrainians.

The Briton was sent distressing footage of a wounded Ukrainian soldier in Avdiivka speaking to his sister on a video call, explaining to her that he had asked his unit to leave him behind in the face of advancing Russian units.

It was more important for able-bodied soldiers to use the available vehicles to speedily fall back, avoiding being surrounded and cut off, than to load them with wounded, the soldier told his sister.

A separate video showed the Ukrainian having been shot dead after Russian soldiers advanced through the position.

Mr Verney said: “They left some wounded there. And they had an agreement with the Russians that they would look after them. [But] they shot them. The Russians just shot them. The only reason [the Ukrainians] couldn’t get [their wounded] out was because they didn’t have enough cars.”

Richard Lofthouse, who works with Car for Ukraine, an initiative that delivers 4x4s and trucks to the front line, said the initial surge of goodwill when Mr Khan bowed to public pressure and gave the Ulez scheme his approval was in danger of fizzling out.

The risk, he said, is that official British efforts will be seen as inefficient and wasteful compared with existing volunteer networks that it was supposed to draw upon.

Sadiq Khan is favourite to win a third term – Yui Mok/PA

“We had a big meeting at the Ukrainian embassy where we were all hoping to all work together in a happy, fluffy-bunny kind of way, helping Ukraine, and it’s not turned out that way at all,” said Mr Lofthouse.

“Sadiq was in such a rush. There was a political payout for getting it done in time for the second anniversary of the invasion,” he claimed.

More than 40,000 cars have been written off under Mr Khan’s Ulez scrappage scheme, although TfL said that only a small portion of these were available to Ukraine starting from mid-March.

Londoners who want to scrap non-Ulez-compliant cars under TfL’s £2,000 grant scheme can tick a box on a form to donate the vehicle to Ukraine.

The scheme is supposed to encourage Londoners to buy Ulez-compliant cars, improving the capital’s air quality – and avoiding daily charges of £12.50 for driving in London.

BUA did not respond to requests for comment.

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