Ukraine: amid bombs and new waves of refugeesə, Med Care 4 Ukraine now reaches over 2000 people.

Between the end of May and the beginning of June, the ninth humanitarian aid supply mission of Mediterranea Saving Humans' Med Care 4 Ukraine project arrived in Ukraine, operating in Lviv together with the twenty-second health mission. Departing from Naples with the participation also of the EdTs of Turin, Venice, Pescara and Rome, the mission distributed humanitarian aid in the main formal and informal reception sites that Mediterranea Saving Humans has been taking care of for the past 10 months.

Particularly significant was the visit to the National Polytechnic in Lviv, the country's largest university with 42,000 enrolled students (among the largest in Europe), in whose halls live around 300 war refugees from areas occupied by the Russian army. Here, thanks to the willingness of the Rector and the willingness of volunteer professorsə, entire families have found refuge since the beginning of the war. Mediterranea has unloaded humanitarian aid, food, hygiene products, but also games for lə children, so many in this informal camp, footballs and T-shirts of the Italian champion Napoli. The medical team is also very active, as it is at the refugee camp of the National Polytechnic that on average has the largest influx of patients in need of basic medical care.

The mission also visited the Sykhiv refugee camp, run by the Lviv City Hall, the St. John Paul II Parish in the Solonka district, and the Byukovichi Monastery, where hundreds of people are housed. The new census of the Med Care 4 Ukraine project shows a catchment area of more than 2,100 people, all war refugees hosted in Lviv, who are being cared for by our volunteer doctors and receive medicines collected by Mediterranea in Italy.

The mission also went to the 'St. Andreas' Paediatric Hospital where drugs were distributed for specific therapies for lə children admitted to the hospital, collected in Italy by Mediterranea thanks to the Banco Farmaceutico of Emilia Romagna. Our activists also met with the association of lawyers "Jurfem" that will join the project "Med Care for Ukraine" by providing free legal assistance to the inhabitants of the refugee camps taken care of by Mediterranea.

Our delegation also met with the Community of St. Egidio at their facility in Lviv, with whom cooperation is being strengthened. Our medical teams will bring assistance to the users of the St. Egidio food bank in Lviv, and the two associations are preparing synergic interventions in favour of the weaker social groups in the city.

The mission also reached the capital Kiev, during the days when it was heavily bombed by the Russian army. Continuous alerts, especially at night, drone attacks and incoming missiles made Mediterranea's activities in the Ukrainian capital no less complicated. Our activists met with the leadership of Caritas Spes Ukraine and visited the ophthalmic clinic they run on the outskirts of the city. Mediterranea Saving Humans and Caritas Spes will continue to work together in mutual support of their specific projects, collaborating on the provision of health care which is dramatically lacking in Ukraine

Also in June, the twenty-third medical mission arrived in Ukraine, while the supply mission departing in July will be organised by the Milan ground crew, in cooperation with Brescia and Bergamo.

During the last missions to Ukraine, it was possible to see how the informal reception sites taken over by Mediterranea Saving Humans in Lviv, find in our association a fundamental support to guarantee war refugees food, medical assistance, and a dignified existence.

Meanwhile, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country has resulted in flooding, which is generating a new mass of internally displaced people in Ukraine.

Thousands of people are pouring into the west of the country, precisely where Mediterranea Saving Humans has never stopped working. Today, the Med Care 4 Ukraine project is one of the few international interventions in the Lviv oblast that is specialised in assisting war refugees, from healthcare to food, from personal hygiene to legal support.

We are where we need to be. We are where we are needed.