Even as they continue to recover from the 5.5-magnitude earthquake that leveled swaths of Gaziantep, good samaritans in Turkey are sending aid to war-torn Ukraine.
The Vadym Novynskyi Foundation received a critical consignment of medical goods from Turkey in February, which was requested by the foundation’s medical specialists. Forming a part of the foundation’s broader humanitarian aid efforts, the cargo included a variety of medically certified products that are scheduled to be sent to soldiers on Ukraine’s front lines.
Delivery of the consignment comes following the signing of a new contract negotiated between the Vadym Novynskyi Foundation and Turkish entrepreneurs after a series of meetings took place at the end of 2022.
“As part of the humanitarian cargo, we received dressing medical materials, elastic bandages, trauma bandages, saline solution in convenient elastic containers, syringes for droppers with a system for connecting saline solution, a large volume of modern disinfectant for treating wounds before surgical intervention, very high-quality tourniquets to stop bleeding, and light gauze dressing materials from an elastic bandage,” said Ivan Rozhko, an employee of the foundation’s medical corps.
This delivery comes just a few weeks after the foundation promised that more “extremely important medical goods” worth a total of more than $730,000 will soon be on its way to the front lines and “transferred as humanitarian aid to the hottest places.”
In addition to medical equipment, ambulances continue to be provided by Vadym Novynskyi to Ukrainian troops and health care facilities. Since the outbreak of war last year, more than 130 ambulances in total have been procured and donated by the foundation, with a Ford Transit ambulance for Kherson defenders and a Volkswagen vehicle for Donbas defenders being among the most recent donations following direct pleas from military units.
Addressing representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ilyas Zaza, the foundation’s medical director, said, “We are happy to help the fighters of the 17th separate tank brigade today. We very much hope that this car will serve the noble cause of saving the lives of military personnel and solving the humanitarian problems of the civilian population in the regions where you perform your difficult service.”
Novynskyi’s Humanitarian Aid
The Vadym Novynskyi Foundation has been providing critical humanitarian assistance since the first days of the war in Ukraine. Billions of hryvnia have been allocated to various projects so far. All of them seek to achieve the same goals: to help Ukrainian civilians survive and withstand the war, and to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine achieve victory over Russia.
Recently, Novynskyi directed the foundation to provide help to Krasnograd, a city in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine that’s been the site of heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Although Russian troops have been forced out of the city, it’s still within shelling range and artillery continues to rain down there.
A stove for a senior citizen, 200 food kits, and two electric generators were among the supplies recently donated to the city’s residents. Novynskyi, who was officially recognized as one of Ukraine’s top wartime donors late last year, provided this through funding from his metallurgical enterprise, Metinvest Group. More than $78 million has been allocated to wartime relief efforts by the steelmaking and mining giant to date, much of which has gone to supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with essential equipment.