Ambulance should save soldiers’ lives: Donation of a vehicle to Ukraine – financing from the aid fund

2023-09-26 18:28:18

Direct help for people from and in Ukraine – this was the motto behind the establishment of the joint aid fund for the districts of Grafschaft Bentheim and Emsland in spring 2022. This fund has now been used to finance a medical transport vehicle (KTW), which a small delegation from Ukraine has used in front of District Hall II in Meppen.

They were guests from the Chernivtsi Raion (district) in Ukraine. Mykola Kutsak, Chairman of the Chernivtsi District Parliament, warmly thanked for the car, which can save lives. It is intended to bring seriously injured soldiers who cannot receive medical care on the embattled front to one of the hospitals in the interior of the country. Kutsak also made it clear once again what the conflict with Russia is about and what sparked it: “We want to compete with the best. We want to belong to the European Union.”

Also part of the delegation were Liudmyla Kushnir, deputy. Chairman of the Chernivtsi District Parliament, deputy Ruslan Rokochyi and driver Kostiantyn Nikulaitsa.

“We have been supporting the Chernivtsi district since the beginning of 2022 together with the Grafschaft Bentheim district and our Polish partner district Lidzbark Warminski, which has a partnership with the Chernivtsi district,” explained Emsland district administrator Marc-André Burgdorf at the handover of the KTW. Charlotte Ruschulte, deputy district administrator of the Grafschaft Bentheim district, also emphasized that this humanitarian aid must be continued as long as there is a need. At the meeting, the delegation from Ukraine also asked for further donations of medicines, hygiene products as well as vehicles for patient transport and fire engines.

The Lidzbark Warminski district in northern Poland is a partner district of the Emsland district and maintains close contacts with the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast on the border with Romania. The Lidzbark Warminski district has been accepting refugees from Chernivtsi since the beginning of the war and has also been supporting the people of Chernivtsi with relief supplies.

The relief fund for the Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim districts totals 470,087 euros. One euro was put into the pot for each citizen of the district. The Emsland district contributes 331,340 euros and the Grafschaft Bentheim district 138,747 euros into the relief fund. Of this, 50 percent of the funds come from the district budgets, with the municipalities contributing the other half.