The Olena Zelenska Foundation has transferred 25 ambulances from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) to emergency and disaster medicine centers to meet the urgent healthcare needs of patients during the war.
The vehicles are equipped with the necessary equipment to provide emergency care, including a resuscitation unit with a ventilator and defibrillator, which will allow doctors to perform resuscitation on the spot.
“I talked to the crews of one of the ambulance stations in Kyiv region and got acquainted with their work: from receiving a call to returning to the place of base. These people do the improbable every day – they save someone’s life, and we all understand that it is hard to do this in the absence of special vehicles. Today, we are handing over 25 ambulances from our foreign partners to the regional emergency care centers. I hope they will help paramedics and doctors save even more lives,” said Olena Zelenska, the Founder of the Foundation.
“In the face of constant shelling and targeted attacks on medical infrastructure by russia, we are doing our best to ensure proper medical care for our patients. The effective work of emergency medical services plays an important role in this. I am particularly grateful to our partners for their support, particularly in restoring the ambulance fleet, which is often targeted by the enemy. As of today, 261 ambulances have been destroyed, 225 damaged and 125 lost. The donated 25 vehicles, designed as mobile intensive care units, will be used to provide the necessary assistance to patients who need additional life-sustaining measures during transportation to and between hospitals,” said Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko.
The vehicles have already been distributed to 17 regional emergency medical care and disaster medicine centers, including those in Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Rivne, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
“Supporting the emergency medical care system is extremely important, as its proper functioning is a strategic component of the healthcare system. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the work of emergency medical teams has been constantly modernized to adapt to numerous challenges. The availability of high-quality equipment is a prerequisite for their work and significantly increases the chances of saving the lives of victims. We are grateful to the Olena Zelenska Foundation for its significant contribution to the development of the EMC system,” added Vitalii Kryliuk, head of the Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Last week, during Viktor Liashko’s working visit to Sumy region, 4 of the 25 vehicles were handed over to the Sumy Regional Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine. In Sumy region, the ambulances are already working on evacuation routes and saving lives of Ukrainians.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Ministry of Health has received 1070 ambulances as part of humanitarian aid, 60 of which are armored. In particular, 77 vehicles were received through the Olena Zelenska Foundation. (Government portal)