On 22nd June, Johanniter International Assistance organised a new transport of medicines to Ukraine. Six health facilities are currently being equipped with essential medicines to maintain supplies. Doctor Andrei Ivanov reports on the daily work in the video.

About twelve tons of medicines are on their way to the cities of Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv, Cherkassy, Kitsman as well as Poltava. “Some deliveries have already arrived at the hospitals, others are still on their way. In some cases, the medicines are split up again at their destination and distributed to facilities in smaller vans,” reports Magdalena Kilwing, head of emergency and immediate aid at Johanniter International Assistance. The medicines were previously procured through the medical aid organization ‘action medeor’ and then sent directly on their way. The pallets contain essential medicines such as painkillers, antibiotics, infusions or agents to inhibit blood clotting.

According to Magdalena Kilwing, procuring medicines in Germany remains difficult due to the high demand. “It can sometimes take weeks to complete the list of requirements, whereas in Romania we were able to put it together in just a few days,” says Kilwing. That’s why the team wants to focus on procurement in Romania in the future, in order to be able to help quickly. The medicines were purchased in Romania through ‘Pharmacists without Borders’, in the next step, the local partner organization Tasuleasa Social then assisted with transport logistics. Johanniter International Assistance has maintained close relations with Tasuleasa Social since the beginning of the war, and they have set up a warehouse and logistic hub for relief supplies in the town of Bistritz.

In the following video, doctor Andrej Ivanov from a hospital in Dnipro, which was supported by Johanniter, describes the daily work on site: