Bakhmut is currently one of the hardest-hit areas in Donbas, with fierce battles taking place there every day. Before the war, the city, in the east of Ukraine, had a population of 80,000. Now there are only a few thousand residents who have refused or been unable to leave due to hostilities. This has led to a grave humanitarian disaster.
In response to fighting in Bakhmut, the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation has presented an ambulance to defenders stationed in the city.
“The Vadym Novynskyi Foundation constantly keeps its finger on the pulse. We are very happy to help exactly where our participation is most needed. So today, in response to the appeal of the leadership of the A7224 military unit, we are handing over another special vehicle to our defenders,” said foundation employee Vitaly Nemytov.
“We are very happy that this car will serve the noble cause of saving human lives and health.”
Helping Ukraine With Ambulances
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces have routinely targeted Ukraine’s health care system to make it more difficult for aid to reach those in need. On the first day of Russia’s invasion, a hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar was barraged, killing four people and wounding 10 more. There have been countless other callous attacks of this nature and the health care system is struggling as a result.
The Ford Transit ambulance was donated under the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation project called Helping Ukraine With Ambulances, which the father-and-son team Vitaly and Dmytro Nemytov work for as drivers. Together with their colleagues, the duo receive vehicles at the border, drive them to Kyiv, carry out remedial work, and then deliver them to high-risk areas. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation has donated more than 120 ambulances to Ukraine’s defenders.
Donations of ambulances began last April when nine vehicles were given to the Territorial Medical Association Regional Center for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine of Zaporizhzhia Regional Council. In August, five more emergency vehicles arrived in Zaporizhzhia after being purchased inside the European Union by the foundation.
Ambulances have also been donated to Kherson following the city’s liberation on Nov. 11 by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, along with other areas inside the Kherson oblast. Parts of Mykolaiv oblast were also liberated, and the foundation’s aid was directed there as well.
“This is an extremely necessary and crucial assistance for us at this time. You know that the occupation has just ended in Kherson, and unfortunately, many ambulances were taken out of our territory,” said Dr. Dmytro Domansky, the chief doctor at Bilozerka Central District Hospital, who thanked the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation for its assistance.
Donating Important Medical Goods
It’s not just ambulances that the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation is supplying to the country’s defenders; it has also procured and distributed critical medical equipment.
In a press release published in January, Novynskyi’s charitable arm promised that more “extremely important medical goods,” including tourniquets, bandages, surgical plasters, and modular bandages, with a total cost of more than 2.7 million hryvnia (approximately $731,048), will soon be on their way to the front lines.
“They will be transferred as humanitarian aid to the hottest places,” said the press release. This latest batch of medical equipment will seek to fulfill the terms of a contract recently negotiated between the foundation and Turkish entrepreneurs following a series of meetings at the end of 2022.
Citizens of Krasnograd in the Kharkiv region have also received support. Among the items donated there were 200 food kits, a stove for a senior citizen, and two electricity generators. These items were donated in partnership with the St. Luke of Crimea church.
“The foundation constantly helps our fellow citizens who are in difficult life circumstances — war veterans, retirees, large families,” said spokesperson Dmytro Sergeyev. “Unfortunately, many Ukrainian families have found themselves in difficult circumstances, so in recent months the foundation has significantly expanded its humanitarian aid efforts.”
So far, the total amount of aid given by the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation to Ukraine is in excess of 1 billion hryvnia.