Humanitarian aid from the City of Vienna - completed projects

A garbage collection vehicle that was decommissioned in Vienna will in future contribute to improved supply security in the Republic of North Macedonia. As part of the City of Vienna's humanitarian aid program, a special truck from the City of Vienna's inventory was donated to the municipality of Berovo in April 2025. The municipality is located in the east of the Republic of North Macedonia, just 15 kilometres from the border with Bulgaria. The town, located at an altitude of approximately 900 metres above sea level, is known for its traditional woodworking.

North Macedonia has a population of around 2 million and is a European developing country. Especially in rural areas, it is characterized by severe poverty, emigration, and chronic underfunding of public facilities. Accordingly, the municipality of Berovo also has no budget to purchase new garbage collection vehicles. This negatively impacts the quality of life of the population.

The vehicle now provided can accommodate approximately 12 tons of garbage and transport it for proper disposal. It will therefore continue to make an important contribution to municipal waste disposal for the 7,000 people living in Berovo for many years to come.

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).