Dutch foundation evacuates six heavily-wounded Ukrainian soldiers to German hospital

Six heavily-wounded Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) soldiers are receiving treatment in a German hospital thanks to evacuation support by a Dutch humanitarian assistance organization, a May 23 statement from the group said.

The Netherlands-based non-profit Zeilen Van Vrijheid worked with the groups Disaster Tech Labs and Bosec Medical Services to coordinate soldiers’ transportation from Ukraine to the Luisenhospital in Aachen, Germany. They arrived on May 19.

Zeilen van Vrijheid paid for evacuation costs. Luisenhospital and the German government will share the cost of treatment, the statement said.

Zeilen chairwoman, Veronika Mutsei credited the group’s medical coordinator Maria Pedenko for the successful evacuation, which will give the soldiers access to world-class treatment.

Kyiv Post during recent field reporting in the Pokrovsk found UAF field medical facilities generally capable of handling routine battle wounds, but, UAF medical personnel told KP badly-wounded soldiers to recover sometimes need top-notch equipment and specialists not always available in Ukraine.

“This is a life-changing story for all of us. Together with Maria [Pedenko], who is a hero of this story, we will soon visit the soldiers in the hospital. I hope that we will be strong enough not to cry in front of them,” Mutsei said.

“These soldiers were and are defending our motherland and our independence, so they deserve all the emotions of this broken world,” she said

Zeilen Van Vrijheid is a non-profit humanitarian organization formed to bring ambulances and other medical aid from the Netherlands to Ukraine. Since its creation on March 1, Zeilen has delivered 70 ambulances, 1 fire truck, and over 100 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The most recent delivery, 17 ambulances, arrived on May 22, the statement said.

Zeilen’s financing and support comes from private donors and partnerships with non-profits and corporations worldwide.

Some western governments, among them Germany’s and Israel’s, have offered access to their country’s health systems to wounded Ukrainian soldiers, as part of international support to Kyiv in its war against Moscow invasion.

Actual treatment of UAF casualties abroad is relatively rare, due to the difficulty of moving injured from Ukraine, and in some cases because of potential cost of treatment.