The director of the "Okhmatdyt" hospital Volodymyr Zhovnir informed that the "Okhmatdyt — Healthy Childhood" Charity Fund, which received donations for the restoration of the hospital after the Russian attack on July 8, "does not plan" to transfer the collected funds to the hospitalʼs official accounts.
A total of 378 million hryvnias were collected on the accounts of the "Okhmatdyt" fund.
Zhovnir noted that since the name of the foundation includes "Okhmatdyt", this became an additional confirmation for the benefactors that the collected funds will be used to rebuild the hospital. However, after the request to transfer money from the fundʼs account to the hospitalʼs account, communication with the fund, Zhovnir noted, "began to deteriorate."
"In the morning, we learned that the fund does not plan to transfer funds to the account of the NDSL ʼOkhmatdytʼ. We are deeply shocked. In my opinion, neither NDSL nor the Fund called "Okhmatdyt" has the right to let Ukrainian society down. However, the participants of the fund (among whom there is not a single employee of NDSL!) decided otherwise," Zhovnir said.
The soldier publicly called on the charity fund to transfer all the collected funds to rebuilding the hospital. Now "Okhmatdyt" is considering the possibility of severing relations with the fund due to their actions, which Zhovnir calls "unscrupulous".
The website of the charitable foundation states that all collected money will remain in its accounts. In a statement, the foundation emphasized that it is ready to pay for any urgent need of the hospital — medical equipment or restoration of buildings damaged by the Russian attack. However, no official requests were received from the hospital.
"We ask to provide legal grounds for transferring funds to treasury accounts without designation. Because now it can entail criminal liability. Therefore, until we receive an explanation, we are postponing consideration of the transfer of funds to treasury accounts," the fund said.
- "Okhmatdyt" is the largest childrenʼs hospital in Ukraine, where more than 20 thousand children are treated every year. On July 8, 2024, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile completely destroyed the toxicology department and damaged four more. 10 surgical departments, five oncology departments and two somatic departments, intensive care, 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.
- On July 31, "Okhmatdyt" informed about the winner of the competition for the repair of the hospital was the "Bud-Technology" company, which offered its services for 307 million hryvnias. Journalists of the Nashi Hroshi project say that this is one of the most expensive proposals, and dozens of companies offered to perform the work much cheaper. After publicity in the media, they decided to hold the tender again. Also, related tenders for engineering consulting services and technical supervision of repair work for more than 14 million hryvnias will be canceled.