A filtration system is already on its way to the Donetsk region and a fire truck will be sent during the week of 23 August. Due to most of the cities in Ukraine’s eastern region having suffered from shelling, people’s water but also electricity and gas infrastructure have been impaired. The filtration system capable of filtrating about 38,000 litres per day will go some way to alleviate the needs of the population.
The fire truck will be especially useful during the grain harvest period and is the first of five vehicles that LUkraine aims to dispatch on their way to Donetsk. Recently, the organisation passed the milestones of having delivered 10 ambulances to Nikopol, 48 km south-west of Zaporizhzhya where a nuclear plant has been the scene of shelling.
The fire truck which arrived in Luxembourg from Sweden was parked at rue Albert Borschette where LUkraine's press conference took place on 23 August. Photo: Maison Moderne
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, LUkraine has arranged accommodation for about 1,000 Ukrainian refugees which has been done in part via host families. In the first weeks after the start of the war, a total of 800 families agreed to take in Ukrainians fleeing the conflict.
“Now, six months later, we do understand the need to move those people to other places, we know that 96% of social houses are already occupied by the refugees,” said LUkraine’s president Nicolas Zharov during a press conference commemorating the 31 years since the reinstallation of Ukraine’s independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union but also six months since Russia’s invasion.
Integration in the job market
Two humanitarian distribution centres were set up to provide basic necessities such as food and clothes. Approximately 3000 refugees have sought help in LUkraine’s information centre and about 150 have taken part in workshops and activities organised by the association.
About 500 people have taken part in language courses organised by LUkraine over the past six months and the organisation has processed more than 400 job applications. Ukrainian refugees have been offered intensive courses in French and English which span over two months. The not-for-profit organisation’s next workshop, in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce will look to train 10 Ukrainian accountants in conformity with the Luxembourg system which will ease their access to the job market in the grand duchy.
“A refugee is not always a liability [for the government]. It can be also an asset,” said Zharov.
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