Dnipropetrovsk is sending 9 tons of critical humanitarian aid to Shchastia, a city in the Luhansk Oblast, reports Dniprohrad, September 11.The aid was made possible through the Fund of National Defense and volunteer organizations. The Aidar battalion will deliver the shipment of food and personal hygiene products to the Luhansk Oblast.
Sviatoslav Oliynyk, deputy governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Administration (ODA), said the oblast has been sending substantial quantities of humanitarian aid to various cities in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts 3-4 times a week, even to cities that are not under the control of the Ukrainian army.
“Right now one of the main objectives is to prevent a humanitarian disaster,” he said. “Today we are shipping food products (cereals, flour, butter) and personal hygiene products. This is the minimum standard of living needed to keep people from starving and to allow them to maintain normal living conditions.”
Oliynyk added that the request for delivering the humanitarian cargo to the city of Shchastia in the Luhansk Oblast came from the Aidar battalion.
“We really pay close attention to these requests. Actually, it’s true that the duties of the territorial defense battalions include the protection of the civilian population,” he said.
Arkadiy Baiker, a spokesman for the Aidar battalion, stressed that this humanitarian aid is critically important for the residents of Shchastia. “You understand what it means to find yourself in a place where the living conditions are terrible, where there is no possibility of even buying food. This is why people in Shchastia almost always need food. It would be a big negative for us if we left them in their misery,” he said. “We appealed to the public for help. Nobody refused us anything. We have two vehicles completely filled with food.” He added that the delivery would be made Friday, September 12.
“Thanks to the oblast administration and people who collected the humanitarian aid we did a great thing. Tomorrow people will get help. (We extend)many thanks from the citizens of Shchastia and the Aidar battalion,” Baiker concluded. [hr]
Dniprograd.org, translated by Anna Mostovych
