The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany allocates €10 million to the Ukrainian government for the reconstruction of the Ohmatdyt Childrenʼs Hospital in Kyiv.
This was reported by the Rheinische Post.
As the publication notes, these funds, together with financial assistance from other sponsors and donors, will be directed to the hospital being operational by winter.
"The destruction of the childrenʼs hospital shows how mercilessly and brutally Russia is waging this war of aggression. Children suffer from it the most. We should not agree and we will not agree with the fact that Ukraine no longer has this health care facility for children with cancer," said the Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Svenja Schulze.
The German Ministry of Development has a close partnership with the childrenʼs hospital through German-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of health care.
"We offered the Ukrainian government to help rebuild the hospital so that the children could quickly receive urgent treatment," the minister continued.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksiy Makeyev emphasized that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has completely destroyed more than 210 medical facilities in Ukraine and seriously damaged more than 1,600. He thanked for numerous offers of help from Germany.
"Thank you all for this — it is much more than abstract sympathy. To overcome the consequences of Russian terror, we must start rebuilding immediately. Germany again provided us with specific help. With €10 million, our German partners once again demonstrated leadership," he said.
According to experts, the reconstruction of Okhmatdyt will require approximately €113 million.
- Okhmatdyt is the largest childrenʼs hospital in Ukraine, where more than 20 thousand children are treated every year. On July 8, 2024, the Russian Kh-101 cruise missile completely destroyed the toxicology building and damaged four more. 10 surgical departments, five oncology departments, two somatic departments, two intensive care units, operating units, radiology and radiation therapy departments, part of the oncology and hematology laboratory (the only one in the country) were affected. At the time of the attack, there were almost 670 children and about a thousand employees in the hospital. They hid in basements, so large casualties were avoided. Two adults died (one of them is a 30-year-old nephrologist Svitlana Lukyanchuk), and 32 people were injured. 8 children were hospitalized with various injuries.