Former police cars that have been driven through the streets of Kaunas for seven years will now serve Kharkiv officials. Representatives of Kaunas municipality delivered five vehicles to the twin city in Ukraine that is constantly suffering from the war. Humanitarian aid was also delivered within the cars.

2.5 months of continuing Russia’s brutal military aggression is demanding more resources every day, especially vehicles, from Ukrainian defenders. Soldiers and officers say that cars are in high demand in such conditions of the war.

“Since the beginning of the war, we have set the goal to help our fraternal Ukrainian people who are attacked by Russia. As a result, Kaunas keeps its word and continues to provide the needed support. One of the branches of the support is the assistance and taking care of full accommodation, education of children and employment of the refugees who are here in Kaunas. Of course, it is important to provide support to the Ukrainians that stayed in their home country as well. Also, we stay in constant contact with twin-cities and get news on what they lack the most, so we will continue the humanitarian aid shipments to Ukraine,” – says Kaunas City Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis.

Representatives of Kaunas City Municipality went to Ukraine and delivered five “Dacia Dokker” cars loaded with medicines, bandages, first aid kits, turnstiles, household and hygiene items, as well as a special parcel from Lithuania police officers to Ukrainians.

Kaunas Municipality purchased these commercial type vehicles for the city police in 2015. At this moment, vehicles were overhauled and handed over for further operation in Kharkiv.

“Dear friends, thank you to all the people of Kaunas, the mayor of the city and the whole team for helping us fight the Russian aggression. You already know, that Kharkiv is now experiencing heavy artillery shelling. Unfortunately, the situation is very complicated. Therefore, all help is very valuable. We are very grateful to everyone for their care and strong support to our city and the whole country,” – said Gabriel Mikhailov, a member of the Kharkiv City Council.

Kaunas sent 2 ambulances and 10 passenger buses with a humanitarian consignment to Ukraine at the beginning of March. The humanitarian aid was distributed for Kaunas partner cities – Lutsk, Kharkiv and Lviv region. Humanitarian aid is targeted to the people in Kharkiv who were mostly affected by the consequences of the war.

“Our support campaigns organized near major shopping centers have shown that Kaunas residents really have big hearts and are indifferent to the pain of the Ukrainian people. Businesses are also positive, when the colleagues of the municipality have sent out inquiries about the purchase of food or medicine from several companies, they heard the asnwer: “We will not sell to Ukraine; we will give it to them.” At this moment we are loading another truck that will be sent to Kharkiv in the near future,” – stated Kaunas Mayor V. Matijošaitis.

Kaunas residents and business organizations that wish to contribute to the humanitarian aid can find more information at ukraina.kaunas.lt

In the coming days 8 more Volkswagen ambulances should be shipped to Ukraine: 7 will travel to Kyiv to the Okhmatdyt National Specialized Children’s Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, and 1 will be handed to the international support fund Ostanij bastion, which is cooperating with the Ukrainian armed forces.

Additionally, Kaunas Municipality will also transfer the medical care and personal hygiene products, purchased through public procurement, to Jurijus Semeniukas Clinical Hospital in the Rivna and Lviv regions.

Public Relations Information