The four ambulances donated by Pope Francis to Ukraine — three bound for Zaporizhia and the other to Kharkiv to treat people injured by the conflict — are already in the country.
One of them was personally driven by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, from Rome. The other three were driven by Ukrainian male religious who guided them to areas where active fighting is taking place and where it is considered dangerous.
The three drivers were Jan Sobilo; Father Tomasz Nadbereżny, a priest who served in Melitopol before the war; and Father Wojciech Stasiewicz, director of Caritas-Spes for the Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia.
On other occasions, the pontiff has blessed ambulances before the trip, but this time the Holy See press office did not state whether he did so or not.
“Thank God, we arrived after a 3,300-kilometer [2,050-mile] journey. We had no major difficulties, except for those due to the snow; we had to go slower because the road was icy,” the cardinal told Vatican News.
The first stop on the trip to the thick of the fight was the city of Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, which in late January was the target of one of the worst attacks by the Russian army against the civilian population recorded in recent months. A drone and missile attack on the city left more than 20 dead.
The region of the same name is also home to the nuclear power plant seized by Russian troops during the first weeks after the 2022 invasion. Both sides regularly accuse each other of endangering the security of this nuclear facility, the largest in Europe.
According to the Vatican News website, Krajewski was busy distributing food and other essential goods, purchased thanks to donations received by the papal almoner.
Many Ukrainians, who have lost everything to aerial attacks, begin lining up at 5 a.m. in the square in front of the Co-Cathedral of God the Merciful Father.
Mostly women arrive with plastic bags they fill with bread, cans of meat and tuna, or packages of pasta and rice. Along with the papal almoner, the brothers of the Third Order of St. Francis, Servants of the Poor (Albertine Franciscans) are also baking bread to donate to help feed the population.
“They distribute a little food three or four times a week, but this means that people are going hungry; this war zone is impoverished,” Krajewski said.
The facility run by the friars is quite old and no longer functions as it used to. The cardinal has therefore promised them that with the donations Pope Francis receives for charitable works, for example through the Peter’s Pence collection, they will be able to buy a new one.
“I went to the bakery where they work. They have an oven that’s about 15 years old and so they need to replace it. I promised them that the pope would take care of this and that they could continue baking safely,” he explained.
After the presentation of the aid the cardinal expressed his intention to be close to those who suffer, visiting various facilities and donating necessary items, thus bringing Pope Francis’ consolation to “tormented Ukraine.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
