TWO UKRAINIAN WOMEN IN TEDDINGTON TO RAISE AWARENESS OF VITAL NEED FOR AID
Two remarkable young women from Lviv in Ukraine are spending time in Teddington to help raise awareness of the country’s desperate requirement for continued vital aid to support injured soldiers and civilians in the conflict with Russian.
The pair have delayed and interrupted their career paths to work full-time for the CMA (Christian Medical Association of Ukraine) which sources humanitarian and medical supplies to support the war effort.
Project manager Uliana Kovalyshyn, 33 and Dr Angie Grutsuyk, 27, international relations manager for CMA are guests of Simon Brake, who has spearheaded the relief mission led by the not-for-profit group Mighty Convoy which has delivered 24 ambulances and one 4×4 vehicle to Ukraine since 2022.
The next convoy will set off from Cambridge Road, Teddington on October 10th but will consist of five 4×4’s vehicles and a fully refrigerated lorry donated by an unnamed supermarket chain after raising £35.000 to fund the purchases of the former utility vehicles.
The convoy will carry surgical gowns and masks, aprons, dressings, pillow cases, sheets, duvet sets, haemorrhage packs as well as other medical instruments for serious orthopaedic injuries.
The new vehicles will be better equipped to negotiate the challenging terrain as winter approaches and reach the frontline faster with paramedics on board. Ambulances also risk being attacked by the Russian forces.
Organiser Simon Brake said: “Last time we handed over the ambulances to the 60th Brigade but they said with winter coming it would be more difficult to get to the frontline because of the terrible terrain and the 4×4’s would be much better.”
Angie told Teddington Town: “It is really important to raise awareness about the current situation. The UK has been and continues to be a great friend to Ukraine with its amazing support – it feels like a miracle to us and we feel that the UK has really led the support and pushed Europe in the same direction.
“I can’t imagine how much harder our jobs would be without this kind of support for our soldiers and our civilians. We are saving lives everyday because of the help like this that we receive and we will continue to need this help.
“We want to inspire people to donate while we are here. Organisations like Mighty Convoy are vital to save lives everyday in Ukraine. It’s not getting any easier – in fact it is harder every day and we really need help. Russia has broken international law but Ukraine will prevail – the whole world can see that.
“Sometimes it is very hard but we don’t have a choice – we cannot stop our work even though we are exhausted but we focussed on saving lives.”
Uliana said: “For me it’s still making me very angry about being attacked by Russia but we really believe that these evil acts will be punished and we will continue to fight for our country. We have seen families wiped out including very small children and new mothers trying to deal with their babies when their husbands are going off to war again.”
Only two weeks ago a massive explosion rocked part of Lviv, partly destroying some of the city’s oldest buildings.
Simon and his team of 11 others will set off from Teddington for the long road journey meeting representatives of the CMA at their HQ in Lviv the vehicles will be handed over to be deployed in the most useful way.
Tonight Angie and Uliana will attend a special reception in London to help highlight the importance of their vital work in Ukraine
You can read more about Mighty Convoy here: www.mightyconvoy.org
You can read more about the background and work of CMA here: Our History | Christian Medical Association Of Ukraine (cma-ukraine.com)
and evacuate injured soldiers to the field hospitals for urgent attention before being moved to bigger city hospitals.
Both are from the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine, based in Lviv, about 500kms west of the capital city Kyiv.
They are Uliana Kovalyshyn, 33 Project manager and Dr Angie Grutsuyk, 27, international relations manager. They are bnoth medics but have delyaed and interrupted their careers to help support the effott and save lives and bring medical releif to soldiers and civilians in Ukraine.
They are in London to raise awareness of the vital work of Might Convoy and the CMA (Christina Medical Association of Ukraine – www.cmaukraine.com
