creative: While Ukraine is facing an acute fuel shortage and strict government regulation, a solution has been found for the humanitarian activities of the Jewish communities in the country.
One of the effects of the ongoing fighting between Russia and Ukraine is manifested in the fuel market. After Putin’s forces bombed oil reservoirs to paralyze the Ukrainian army, the government in Kyiv limited the daily amount of fuel per citizen to only about twenty liters.
In addition to this regulation, fuel prices have of course skyrocketed, and at the gas stations – those of them that are still functioning – there are long lines that can wait for about 7 hours.
The Jews of Ukraine are in the general trouble of their country and their movement is limited. But the Jewish communities, known for their humanitarian activities since the outbreak of the war, found themselves stuck due to these mobility restrictions.
The creative solution found for this: electric cars, without the need for fuel. With the help of such vehicles it will be possible to distribute medicine and food or to transport patients for medical treatment.
One of the vehicles, carrying food packages
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About forty new electric vehicles were purchased for this purpose by the Jewish-Ukrainian organization ‘The Jewish Federation in Ukraine’. The vehicles are divided into central communities throughout the country, according to various criteria.
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According to information obtained by the Shabbat Square, the cars were given free to the communities, provided that they are used at least three times a week for activities. Eight vehicles of which have already entered into operation in the cities of Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Chernigov and Poltava. 5 of the vehicles were purchased at a subsidized cost from the Volvo company, whose franchisee in Ukraine is Jewish and worked to obtain them at a discounted price.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Segal, a Poltava rabbi and a local Chabad emissary, said after such a car was received that “6 days a week we prepare hundreds of hot meals every day for the sick, disabled and needy through an array of volunteers who distribute the meals to the homes of the needy that operates on behalf of the Chabad house in Poltava.
“When the fuel shortage began, we were unable to carry out the distribution. The food, of course, was not distributed, and the needy called all the time to find out what happened and when the food would arrive, while at the same time the basic and necessary medicines that we provide them, such as insulin, heart medicines and more, we could not bring to their homes. The vehicle – this in itself is very difficult, because the demand is great and it is almost impossible to find electric vehicles available for purchase.”
Rabbi Shlomo Salomon, rabbi of Kermanchog, also testified about a member of his congregation – “a Jew whose family claims his medical condition deteriorated because we were unable to give him regular medications that he takes. The electric vehicles really save lives in the simplest sense of the word and help in the daily routine. I really hope For the Jews in the other communities to get electric cars for them as soon as possible.”
An elderly woman from the Jewish community is helped by the division
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