In response to an appeal describing the situation in Ukraine as a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Pope Leo XIV has dispatched a shipment of essential medicines, the Vatican News reported earlier this week.
According to a statement from the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the pope sent a truckload valued at over EUR 1 million.
Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia issued a dramatic appeal on behalf of more than 800 families left without heat after military strikes crippled energy infrastructure, according to the Vatican News.
Repairs are impossible in the short term, it said, so the bishop asked Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s almoner, to help secure heating equipment.
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski
On Tuesday, hundreds of oil-filled electric heaters purchased in Italy arrived in Zaporizhzhia, the report said.
More than 1,000 of them will provide warmth for families in dire straits, some forced to seek refuge in heated shelters and makeshift housing.
“Despite all logistical and operational challenges, the supplies will be distributed quickly across the bombed territories," Krajewski said.
Pope Leo last Sunday reiterated "the urgent need for peace" in Ukraine, which he said "cannot be delayed" amid the “indescribable suffering” of families affected by Russia’s invasion.
Earlier this month, the pontiff sent 80 power generators and a shipment of medicines to Ukraine, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
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Source: PAP, vaticannews.va