Humanitarian aid from the City of Vienna - completed projects

On October 24, 2024, the 70^th truck with relief supplies from the City of Vienna for Ukraine was loaded at the Favoriten Hospital. Mayor Michael Ludwig, along with Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Khymynets and the General Director of the Vienna Health Association, Evelyn Kölldorfer-Leitgeb, welcomed the relief shipment. The truck brought 40 hospital beds and 71 mattresses to the hospital in Podilsk in the Odessa region. The hospital most recently received medical equipment, surgical instruments, and linen with a total weight of 5.2 tons from Vienna at the end of June 2024.

During a media briefing, Mayor Ludwig presented a successful report: Since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022, a total of 425 tons of relief supplies have been brought to Ukraine using 70 semi-trailer trucks. Humanitarian aid deliveries are organized by the Municipal Department 27 itself using scrapped goods from the Vienna Health Association and transported to their destinations by semi-trailer truck. The current focus is on bringing scrapped hospital beds and medical equipment to equip clinics in Ukraine, in close cooperation with the Austrian Embassy in Kyiv.

Due to the hostilities, medical care for the population is extremely precarious. Many hospitals and emergency field hospitals have already been equipped with the goods delivered in recent years. In 2024 alone, 780 hospital beds were brought to Ukraine to expand treatment capacity. This year, deliveries primarily went to hospitals in the Kyiv, Odessa, and Lviv areas.

Effective Aid for Ukraine

Since the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, 14.6 million people in the country have been dependent on humanitarian aid. This corresponds to approximately 40 percent of the population. In addition to the more than 6.3 million people who have fled abroad, millions more have become internally displaced within Ukraine and urgently need humanitarian assistance. The ongoing fighting and the massive destruction of infrastructure are leading to bottlenecks in the provision of medical aid.

The City of Vienna therefore further intensified its long-standing humanitarian aid for Ukraine in the first half of 2024. Between January and June 2024, 128 tons of medical supplies were transported to Ukraine by 20 trucks. From the Vienna Health Network's rationed stocks, hospital beds were made available, as were basic medical equipment urgently needed in hospitals in Ukraine to care for injured and sick people. The focus of support was on hospitals in the Kyiv, Odessa, and Lviv areas that needed to expand their capacity. A total of 722 used but fully functional hospital beds were donated for patient care.

The challenging logistical implementation of the aid transports continued in the tried-and-tested manner between the Municipal Department 27 and the Austrian Embassy in Kyiv. Thanks to the excellent cooperation between the City of Vienna and the Ukrainian authorities, 68 truckloads of relief supplies weighing 414 tons have been made available since 2022. In addition, the City of Vienna made a financial contribution of 50,000 euros to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine through the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI).

Vienna sends nine emergency vehicles to Ukraine

On October 23, 2023, Mayor Michael Ludwig officially welcomed a convoy of four fire engines and five rescue vehicles in the presence of Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Khymynets.

The vehicles were transferred to Kosice, Slovakia, the following day, and handed over to the Ukrainian civil defense authorities for onward transport to Ukraine. The fire engines were transported to Lviv, and the rescue vehicles to Odessa. Both cities are frequent targets of Russian bombing. The fire engines, from the Vienna Fire Department (MA 68), included a rescue vehicle equipped with hoses and tools, a turntable ladder truck, and two command vehicles. The five rescue transport vehicles, including medical equipment, were provided by the Vienna Rescue Department (MA 70).

Mayor Michael Ludwig:

Vienna has been supporting Ukraine with aid deliveries since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The transfer of nine emergency vehicles is further assistance to the people on the ground and at the same time a further sign of our solidarity with the Ukrainians.

Vasyl Khymynets, Ukrainian Ambassador to Vienna, expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Ukrainian people for the "extensive aid measures with which the City of Vienna is supporting Ukraine."

Since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022, the City of Vienna has delivered 48 trucks of relief supplies weighing 292 tons to Ukraine.

Intensive Aid for Ukraine

As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, millions of people currently depend on humanitarian aid. To meet the massively increased need for medical care, additional hospital capacities are being provided especially in Western Ukraine. The City of Vienna has supported this effort with a significant amount of supplies and material for the inpatient treatment of injured and sick patients. From January to June 2023, 17 trucks with 110 tonnes of medical supplies and technical equipment made their way to Ukraine. In January 2023, a truck with 40 hospital beds from Vienna made its way to the city of Netishyn, and another truckload of much-needed medical equipment and hospital beds went to a hospital in Kiev. The reopened school in Hostomel received a truck full of school furniture from Vienna.

To help Ukrainians especially during the cold season, two electricity generators were transported to the city of Khmelnytskyj in cooperation with Caritas. Six trucks took urgently needed surgical material – such as gloves, aprons, coats, bonnets and protective goggles – to the hospitals in the Mukachevo and Uzhhorod area in February. May and June saw 230 hospital beds shipped to hospitals in the Ukrainian cities of Zalishchyky, Kitsman and Khmelnytskyj, boosting in-patient treatment capacities there.

After the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was blown up, the City of Vienna responded swiftly to the ensuing flood disaster. The City of Vienna Fire Services sent civil protection equipment like inflatable boats, pumps, hoses and generators to their Ukrainian colleagues to help them deal with the aftermath of the disaster.