Caritas sends aid truck to Kyiv

The Catholic charity Caritas Croatia has sent a large truck packed with 20 tons of humanitarian aid for Ukraine. 

The truck, which departed from Zagreb on Friday, is carrying non-perishable food and hygiene products collected through donations over the past two weeks.

"This shipment is headed directly to Kyiv, that is, to the diocese of Kyiv and Zhytomyr. We'd like to thank everyone who responded to our call and participated, and we would like to stress that we will continue to collect aid and send it directly to Ukraine as long as it is possible,” said Suzana Borko, the deputy director of Caritas Croatia.

There appears to be no end in sight to the crisis in Ukraine and the United Nations is warning that the situation will only get worse if the war does not end soon. Many people are trapped in cities that are under siege and there are grim reports coming from southern Ukraine, where large numbers of people are without food, water, and medicine.

There are around 7,500 Ukrainian refugees in Croatia and more are expected to arrive. Most of them are staying in accommodations arraigned privately but around 140 are housed of at a former roadside motel near Zagreb, Motel Plitvice, and another 40 at a hostel in Rakitje, also near Zagreb. The hostel, formerly a reception center, has been turned into permanent housing for refugees.