Azerbaijani humanitarian aid to Ukraine

Baku/02.03.22/Turan: "We are grateful to the Azerbaijani people. Since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine the Azerbaijani aid has been coming to us. Every day we send 2-3 trucks; also, we sent a cargo plane with humanitarian aid from Baku. This aid includes everything - medicines, water, food, clothes; the money is sent to the bank account specified on the Embassy's website," an employee of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan told Turan. He wished not to be named because of the war and the attention paid to the Embassy's activities by the enemy state.

According to the diplomat, shipments manage to be sent to Ukraine via Poland and Romania: "The logistics are very complicated, I cannot say everything now, understand us correctly," he said, expressing the Embassy's great gratitude to the people of Azerbaijan.

Several NGOs and commercial firms in Baku are collecting aid from Azerbaijani citizens. One of these is the Red Hearts Kapital Bank Group. Sevda Hagverdiyeva, head of this group, brings together more than 400 employees from all of Azerbaijan's Kapital Bank offices.  They first started helping the victims of Azerbaijan's Patriotic War, in the autumn of 2020.  Then, according to S. Hagverdiyeva, they collected a record amount of aid among similar organizations - one and a half million manats.

"With the start of the events in Ukraine, we switched to collecting donations for Ukrainians. Since that country's Embassy refused to accept monetary aid, the group spent the first amount collected - 1,800 manats - on buying medicines. The Ukrainian Embassy informed them of their need for such aid, under the condition that the medication should not be Russian or Belarusian-made. At present, a second sum is being collected, for which we will again buy medicines and hand them over to the Ukrainian Embassy", Hagverdiyeva said.

In addition to the humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, there is a need for assistance to tourists from that country who have been detained due to circumstances in Azerbaijan. According to the Embassy's official, the problems of these Ukrainian citizens are being solved, and Azerbaijanis are also actively involved in this.

There is a message on the social networking site of Ukrainian journalist Yulia Nesteriak asking Ukrainians to send medications to the military who are sick because they are sleeping on the ground.

The State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance and the Azerbaijan Medical Territorial Unit Management Association have sent medicines and medical equipment to Ukraine. The plane with medical supplies on board left Baku on 27 February.--0-